Celebrated Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith understands better than most that thrilling author Patricia Highsmith was a complicated woman.
An unwanted child, life at home was a battlefield for Highsmith. Especially with her mother, with whom she continued to tussle as an adult, lobbing venomous letters back and forth. Of course, the author of the Hitchcock-favoured thriller Strangers on a Train was also queer in a time with little patience for such realities, penning lesbian romance The Price of Salt, otherwise known as Carol, under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.
Mostly, she preferred the company of cats, eviscerating any fools who approached her unwittingly, as Murray-Smith memorably documented in her smash hit play, Switzerland.
“I have long been invested in The Talented Ms Highsmith and her wildly strange and brilliant mind,” Murray-Smith says.
Highsmith’s prickliness might go some way towards explaining the creation of the slinkiest of cunning murderers: Tom Ripley.
Published in 1955, Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley introduced the world to the scammer scrambling along on small-time con jobs in New York until shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf rocks up. Convincing the richer man he’s closer to his son Dickie than he is, Ripley scores the plum gig of pursuing the errant scion to the Italian Riviera, supposedly to bring him home. Only Ripley gets an insatiable taste for the finer side of life, equal parts doting on and despising his rich new frenemy.
The play, just like the book, boasts a set-up to die for, with Ripley loath to let go of the high life when Dickie takes a turn. Just how far will he go to preserve the pleasures to which he has become accustomed? And what to do about the cop hot on his trail, Dickie’s squeeze Marge and his best friend Freddie, all of whom are onto him?
Highsmith’s deliciously wicked creation has fascinated readers for 70 years now, with Alain Delon stepping into his nefariously appropriated shoes in French filmmaker René Clément’s 1960 film Plein Soleil (dubbed Purple Noon for the English release). Of course, there was the 1999 Anthony Minghella adaptation starring Matt Damon. More recently, Andrew ‘hot priest’ Scott assumed his identity for the black and white Netflix show.
Now, Murray-Smith re-teams with director Sarah Goodes on a brand-new take of Highsmith’s so-bad-he’s-wicked-good anti-hero. Produced by Sydney Theatre Company, The Talented Mr. Ripley will transform the Playhouse into a Positano-like escape from October 28 to November 23, direct from the world premiere in Sydney.
Heartbreak High star Will McDonald will tackle the duplicitous title role, while our imperiously snooty Dickie will be unveiled soon. Andrew McFarlane plays Dickie’s unimpressed father, Claude Scott-Mitchell is snoopy Marge, Faisal Hamza is prickly Freddie, and the cast rounds out with Johnny Nasser as tenacious Inspector Rolverini.
“There’s something perennially intriguing about Tom Ripley, a character on the fringes, whose need for acceptance outweighs any moral code,” Goodes says. “The stage is the perfect setting for such rich psychological material, his slippery identity, his shame and his cunning talent for impersonation. It’s a real privilege to unite once again with Joanna Murray-Smith to bring the mercurial Tom Ripley to life.”
For more information and to book your tickets, head to the website.
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