Directed by Jordan Best – Designed by Michael Spark
Lighting by Cynthia Jolley Rogers – Sound by Mathew Webster
Presented by Pigeonhole Theatre
The Courtyard Studio - Canberra Theatre Centre – July 4th
– 14th
Performance on 5th July reviewed by Bill
Stephens
 |
| Karen Vickery as Patricia Highsmith |
Patricia Highsmith was
a successful author who wrote twenty-two novels, including her
best-selling “Ripliad”, five books featuring her best known creation, the
talented conman and killer, Tom Ripley. Cantankerous, cynical and paranoid, she
was not a sweet character; in fact her publisher described her as a mean,
cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being. She had a talent for burrowing
into amoral and macabre corners of the psyche, and spent her final years holed
up in Switzerland.
For her play, “Switzerland”, playwright, Joanna
Murray-Smith has harvested Highsmith’s eccentricities - her snail-breeding
hobby, her collection of antique weapons, her love of show-tunes and her racism,
to devise a gripping two-hander that re-imagines the twilight of Highsmith’s
life.
The play opens with the ageing Highsmith (Karen Vickery)
alone in her study, which is decorated with an arsenal of antique weapons. She’s
in the grip of writer’s block, and expecting a visit from Edward Ridgeway
(Lachlan Ruffy) the young representative sent by her New York publisher to
persuade her to write one more novel before she dies.
 |
| Lachlan Ruffy as Edward Ridgeway |
Highsmith is determined not to agree to Ridgeway’s
overtures and when arrives she is unwelcoming and unco-operative, bating him
with hostile, supercharged insults. Ridgeway though is determined to succeed in
his mission and not easily dissuaded. He deftly deflecting her barbs, and when
he suggests that he can provide her with an ending for her unfinished novel,
her interest is finally piqued. However, when Highsmith questions his sexuality, Ridgeway’s response changes the
direction of the play, leading to the final horrific denouement.
Jordan Best’s direction is confident and well- paced
and Michael Sparks excellent triangular setting creates exactly the right mood,
crammed as it is with a wealth of detail
regarding Highsmith's life and
interests, and enhanced by the
atmospheric lighting design of Cynthia
Jolley Rogers, and Mathew Webster’s well-observed sound design.
 |
| Karen Vickery and Lachlan Ruffy in "Switzerland" |
Karen Vickery is fearless in her performance as the unlovely Highsmith, and is well teamed with Lachlan Ruffy, who manages the progression from gee-whiz kid to sinister intruder with considerable aplomb. Both relish the opportunities offered by Murray-Smith’s witty, acerbic, often funny dialogue.
Full houses for the entire season of this play are
testimony to the appetite of Canberra audiences for well-produced, sophisticated
contemporary plays. Pigeonhole Theatre has again scored a winner with this excellent
production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s tantalizing “Switzerland”.
Images by David James McCarthy
This review also appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
