Laurence Boxhall and Toni Scanlan in Switzerland. Photo: Brett Boardman
A script that bristles with venom and wit, two extremely well cast actors vying for the upper hand, hints of menace that are as chilly as the Swiss Alps outside and all of this going at a cracking pace – what’s not to like about this Shaun Rennie-directed production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland?
What prompted Murray-Smith to get into the head of Patricia Highsmith, the famously acerbic and bigoted novelist best known for the creation of the amoral Tom Ripley, we don’t know but her version of Highsmith pulls no punches and Toni Scanlon gives us a brilliant rendition.
The opening scene is worthy of a crime thriller. Highsmith sits typing in her Swiss hideaway when, silhouetted in the doorway, appears Edward (Laurence Boxhall), a young man sent by Highsmith’s publishers to coax another Ripley novel from the reluctant novelist.
Scanlon’s Highsmith reacts angrily, spitting out lacerating one-liners that have the audience engrossed and poor Edward on the back foot. He parries, she thrusts. The wordplay and the acting is delicious; Highsmith is not a woman to be bullied – she is already fed up to the back teeth with the patriarchy of the US literary elite so Edward’s mission seems to be over before it begins.
‘Highsmith was full of contradictions,’ says Scanlon. ‘She was utterly brilliant, fiercely intelligent, a homophobe and a lesbian.’ And she also had a fine collection of very sharp knives, perhaps a necessity for a crime novelist. Swift, silent deaths, worthy of your favourite sociopath. ‘I like murders,’ says Murray-Smith’s Highsmith. ‘I’ve committed hundreds of them.’
Edward, despite his somewhat diffident early overtures, rallies to Highsmith’s challenges. It’s a wonderfully chameleon-like performance from Boxhall – and makes for some great theatre.
Switzerland runs for 90 minutes without an interval but has distinct scenes and cleverly blurs the lines between reality and fiction. Veronique Benett’s lighting (she also designed the beautifully detailed set) is particularly effective, as is the sound design by Kelly Ryall.
The denouement comes somewhat suddenly, in the way of a many a crime novel.
Given that there is a new Netflix series called Ripley, this production of Switzerland is very timely. And Murray-Smith’s imagination is an awesome thing in itself.
Recommended
Until 8 June.
Tickets $43-88
More at www.ensemble.com.au
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