Switzerland
\nby Joanna Murray-Smith
\nState Theatre Company
\nDunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
\nOctober 25. Tickets: $33- $61. Bookings 131 246 or online.
\nDuration: 1 hour 40 minutes. No interval.
\nUntil November 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy imagination functions much better,\u201d the American novelist Patricia Highsmith sardonically observed, \u201cwhen I don\u2019t have to speak to people.\u201d She much preferred to be alone with words. Misanthropic, prejudiced, witheringly intolerant, Highsmith wrote fiction about crime which was much more than generic crime fiction.<\/p>\n
Admired by Graham Greene, her novels had the ambition of Dostoyevsky and Camus, and spoke to the darkest recesses of human experience. Alfred Hitchcock turned her first novel, Strangers on a Train<\/em>, into a film classic and her most famous character, the psychopathic Tom Ripley, is one of the most intriguing and repellent creations in popular fiction.<\/p>\n It is no wonder playwright Joanna Murray-Smith seized on Highsmith\u2019s complex and disturbing life and works for Switzerland<\/em>, her excellent play about writing and crime, first performed in 2015. Murray-Smith has created a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of the artist as an old woman.<\/p>\n It is 1995, and now a recluse in Locarno, in the Swiss Alps, Highsmith is visited by Edward, a young man representing her New York publisher, who is trying to sign her up for one more book \u2013 one last Ripley.<\/p>\n In this new State Theatre production, carefully paced by director Nescha Jelk, Murray-Smith\u2019s engagingly witty two-hander morphs into a larger study of death and the end of imagining. A visit becomes a visitation – and, of course, Ripley is involved.<\/p>\n Ailsa Paterson\u2019s detailed set (warmly lit by Nigel Levings) recreates Highsmith\u2019s modernist alpine hideaway, with her 1956 Olympia typewriter, her cigarettes, bottles of scotch, and fetish for knives and weaponry all on display. Jason Sweeney\u2019s fluttery violin and thrumming cello interludes between scenes also serve the production well.<\/p>\n The performances are captivating. As Edward (and Ripley redux) Matt Crook is both an amusing target for Highsmith\u2019s tirades against youth and contemporary culture, and an artful Riplean tempter, insidiously flattering and probing the author\u2019s fears and insecurities. Crook is a skilled comic actor and his flustered, awkward manner (and impeccable New York accent) heightens the banter which introduces the play.<\/p>\n Much depends on the Highsmith role and the formidable Sandy Gore does not disappoint. In white shirt, slacks and expensive leather shoes, she brilliantly captures Highsmith\u2019s forthright disdain. With a vocal drawl, not unlike the late Gore Vidal, she dispenses her witticisms and jeremiads in a descending cadence of considered contempt and displeasure. It is a mannered delivery, but serves Joanna Murray-Smith\u2019s ranging, digressive text admirably.<\/p>\n Switzerland<\/em> is a diverting, scintillating duel with words and small daggers. But with Jelk\u2019s expertly managed final scene, the mysteries of the writer and her creation are also poignantly revealed. Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith State Theatre Company Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre October 25. Tickets: $33- $61. Bookings 131 246 or online. Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes. No interval. Until November 5. \u201cMy imagination functions much better,\u201d the American novelist Patricia Highsmith sardonically observed, \u201cwhen I don\u2019t have to speak to people.\u201d She much preferred to be alone with words. Misanthropic, prejudiced, witheringly intolerant, Highsmith wrote fiction about crime which was much more than generic crime fiction. Admired by Graham […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,5,16,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-37","category-archive","category-australian-texts","category-state-theatre-company","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2806,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions\/2806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cWitty two-hander is a duel\u201d, The Australian<\/em>, October27, 2017, p.16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"