Acclaimed Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith will return to the world of American novelist Patricia Highsmith, with a glamorous adaptation of 20th century psychological thriller ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’.
The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) production will enjoy its world premiere at Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney from August-September, before travelling to Arts Centre Melbourne this October-November.
Following the successes of STC’s ‘Julia’ and ‘Switzerland’ (the latter a thriller inspired by Highsmith), Joanna Murray-Smith will reunite with Director Sarah Goodes to transform the seductive page-turner ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ into an electrifying stage experience.
Some of Australia’s hottest screen and stage talent will take to the stage for the show, including Will McDonald (‘Heartbreak High’), Claude Scott-Mitchell (‘The Last Anniversary’), Faisal Hamza (‘House Of Gods’), Andrew McFarlane (‘The Newsreader’) and Johnny Nasser (‘Heartbreak High’).
Will McDonald plays Tom Ripley, an orphan and hustler barely scraping by in 1950s New York. Tom cultivates certain talents (like a capacity for mimicry and deception) which set him apart, and when the confident heir to a large fortune introduces him to the world of luxury, beauty and hedonism, Tom begins to fashion himself after him and imagine for himself a life he’d kill for.
“I have long been invested in The Talented Ms Highsmith and her wildly strange and brilliant mind. The world’s most famous serial killer has been waiting for his moment in the spotlight and it’s now,” Joanna Murray-Smith says.
“It’s remarkable how enduring the appeal of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ remains, 70 years after Patricia Highsmith first published her novel,” Director Sarah Goodes adds. “There’s something perennially intriguing about Tom Ripley, a character on the fringes, whose need for acceptance outweighs any moral code. The stage is the perfect setting for such rich psychological material, his slippery identity, his shame and his cunning talent for impersonation.”
‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ plays Roslyn Packer Theatre (Sydney) 19 August-28 September, and Arts Centre Melbourne 28 October-23 November.
