In Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2014, Murray-Smith explored in some detail author Patricia Highsmith’s obsession with her famous character Tom Ripley. Now, it seems that Highsmith’s obsession has followed Murray-Smith, with her latest work being an adaptation to the stage of Highsmith’s first Ripley novel, The Talented Mr Ripley (which has also been turned into a film and a television series). 

“I fear [Highsmith] is now part of my DNA,” says Murray-Smith in the program for this work. 

Murray-Smith’s adaptation of the play is largely faithful to the source material, but with an added emphasis on exploring the character of Ripley on stage. Ripley is a young grifter who receives the opportunity to travel to Italy to check on Dickie Greenleaf, the son of a rich professional. He soon forms a friendship with Greenleaf and integrates himself into the world of the rich and powerful before the world begins to unravel, and Ripley turns into the serial killer that the world now knows him to be. 

With a heavy focus on the inner psyche of Ripley and what drives him, the production demands a lot of its titular character and Will McDonald is absolutely phenomenal in the role. He gets the tone perfect, managing to avoid a cartoon villain style performance and instead focussing on eliciting the depth from the character with an almost sympathetic portrayal. In conveying Ripley as somewhat of an everyman, McDonald engenders empathy for the character which leads to a much more connected performance. 

He is well supported by Raj Labade as Dickie and Claude Scott-Mitchell as Marge, who are suitably vacuous and vain for the roles, as well as Johnny Nasser, who brings unexpected humour to the role of Inspector Rolverini however this is really McDonald’s show, with a brilliant performance lifting this production significantly. 

In some ways, there is potential for Murray-Smith to do more with Highsmith’s work than she does, but what she does play up is the homoeroticism of the relationship between Dickie and Ripley, bringing an element of scorn into Ripley’s characterisation. With all the discussion in modern discourse around the concept of “incel” behaviour, such a reading feels especially pertinent and informative of Ripley’s beliefs. 

The production is suitably suspenseful, with the murder scenes gripping the audience. The show is perhaps on the border of being too long given the lack of interval but it gets away with it due to the drama on stage and the lack of interval means that the flow is not broken. Set designer Elizabeth Gadsby uses a minimalist set but this suits the play well as it allows the audience to focus on the character of Ripley while Damien Cooper’s lighting and Steve Francis’ sound create further suspense. The ending of the production is especially strong and sets up for a possible (perhaps definite) sequel for Sydney Theatre Company to tackle at some point. 

Overall, this is a faithful rendition of a classic novel that does not take a huge amount of risks nor does it really break the mould in any way, which means that comparisons to Switzerland (which truly is a masterpiece of writing) do not quite do this play justice. However, this production is certainly gripping, and the superb acting performances make it a truly fantastic watch for the audience. For those who are fans of the book, or wanting to discover the character for the first time, the play has all the elements needed for a wonderful night at the theatre. Definitely a highlight of the Sydney Theatre Company season. 

Rating: ★★★★1/2

The Talented Mr Ripley plays at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until 28^th September before it tours to the Arts Centre Melbourne from 28^th October. For more information, click here. 

All photo credits: Prudence Upton