The Talented Mr Ripley: quick links
A fine new generation of actors is bringing a fresh audience to Sydney Theatre Company (STC). In the title role of Tom Ripley, Heartbreak High’s Will McDonald leads a young core cast. McDonald shoulders a weighty load with aplomb. He is not only physically onstage for two hours but shapeshifts seamlessly between the multifaceted personas of Ripley and Ripley impersonating golden boy, Dickie Greenleaf.
Many will know the story of The Talented Mr Ripley. Originally a best-selling psychological crime novel by Patricia Highsmith, a movie with Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow and a recent television series with Andrew Scott and Dakota Fanning, Tom Ripley is enlisted by Dickie Greenleaf’s father (a stoic yet fractured Andrew McFarlane) to bring Dickie (congenial Raj Labade) home from Italy where he is living a life of indulgence. Suit-wearing Tom is out of place on the Italian Riviera and viewed with suspicion by Dickie’s friends Marge (a seemingly soft-centred but steely Claude Scott-Mitchell) and Freddie (a slyly magnetising Faisal Hamza).
Tom captures Dickie’s attention with his talent for mimicry and becomes a parasitic part of the coterie. Or does he? He becomes obsessed with Dickie and his extravagant lifestyle. The interplay of the emotions and actions of a duplicitous, remorseless psychopath with the insecurity and neediness of someone who ‘wasn’t enough’ flits through Tom’s facial expressions and body language.
The Talented Mr Ripley: minimalist set
How does someone stage a play with such an iconic, cinematic setting? Director Sarah Goodes (who also directed playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland and Julia) has collaborated thoughtfully with set designer Elizabeth Gadsby (A Cheery Soul) and lighting designer Damien Cooper (On The Beach) to come up with a minimalist set. The simple backdrop of a white-walled room with a sketched-looking doorframe transforms into stylised interiors and a beach playground.
The actors join the stagehands, who wear neckerchiefs, to move furniture and props. It’s an interesting, and obviously deliberate, decision to make the usually black-clad stage crew so visible. Their activity helps fill the over-sized stage, but is at times fussy and distracting. An anachronistic issue that also jolts the viewers out of the theatrical magic is Will McDonald’s tattoos. They don’t fit with the character or period.
The Talented Mr Ripley: humour incorporated
Another surprising directorial choice is to incorporate humour. Most theatre audiences look for it and love it. In a black tale like Ripley, it serves as a relief and is often welcome. However, the first time Johnny Nasser (impeccable as Inspector Rolverini and multiple cameos) holds up a fan to make a scarf flutter in the wind was more than enough. The audience response dwindled to polite laughter.
However, these are quibbles that fade into the background when considering the overarching and entertaining power of the whole production. STC’s Ripley is a highly professional theatrical embodiment of illusion, shadow, dark and light through character and stagecraft. Kudos to the team of creatives working together to bring a well-known and celebrated tale to a new form for the Sydney stage.
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What will audiences remember about this play? The highlight for many will be McDonald’s quicksilver portrayal of Tom as both Dickie Greenleaf and Tom Ripley himself. His expressive face and malleable movements make him consummately and completely the talented Mr Ripley.
The Talented Mr Ripley will be performed at STC’s Roslyn Packer Theatre until 28 September before touring to Melbourne.
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