Theatre Review
The
Talented Mr Ripley
This Phyllis Nagy adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's famous novel is a colder, bleaker work than the recent film adaptation, mostly told in monologue to the audience and in shifting, half-narrative, half-performed sequences between characters separated by time, space and even death. Anomie Productions' savagely short presentation of the play relishes a desperate wistfulness which seems slightly at odds with a story which is actually about succeeding in finding the doors to a life of wealth and privilege, kicking them in, and triumphantly usurping the place of our better-off friends. It
almost feels like a one-man show, best when Tom Ripley (played Ripley's final triumph is delivered only to the audience, face thrown back, disintegrating into harsh light, his beguiling tale of amorality dissolving into awkward, angry pronouncements, lost between shouting and silence. It's
a long, complicated plot and this whistle-stop dash through it Jeremy Dennis |