Patricia Highsmith was one of the most intriguing authors of the 21st century. What wasn’t known about her life was often left to public speculation, even about her twilight years in Switzerland. This part of her life has offered both its name and mystery to the Sydney Theatre Company’s latest piece, Switzerland.
Well before the play begins the audience is immediately transported to the Alps. Designer Michael Scott-Mitchell has done a breathtaking job with the space, which is equally beautiful and scrupulous in its execution. Enter Sarah Peirse as Highsmith, a now reclusive author in the 1990s who receives an expected but arguably unwanted visit from Edward Ridgeway (Eamon Farren). This unfortunate chap has been given the difficult task of getting Highsmith to commit to a final book about her star character, Tom Ripley. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse with the young man, who is equal parts starstruck, nervous and determined to prove himself.
Although the concept of fictionalising a real person can be morally difficult, it feels right in Joanna Murray-Smith’s play. Perhaps this is because like many of her characters, Highsmith suits the role of the ambivalent antihero who you can’t help but love. Peirse does a truly stunning job at portraying the writer, balancing the tightrope between prickly recluse and a dying woman who is starved for intellectual stimulation. Her delivery of Murray-Smith’s witty and razor-sharp dialogue provides both laugher and moral reflection.
Watching Farren portray the fictional Ridgeway is also a thrill. Everything down to his mannerisms is delightfully awkward, and seeing his interaction with Peirse, and his character evolve before our eyes, is a privilege. I haven’t been so engrossed in 100 minutes of two people talking since Louis Malle’s My Dinner With Andre. Director Sarah Goodes has done an incredible job, and I can personally see Switzerland becoming a smash hit.
4.5/5 stars
Switzerland is playing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House until Saturday December 20.
