In 2014, Sydney Theatre Company premiered Switzerland, Joanna Murray-Smith’s gripping psychological thriller about American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, which has since been produced around the world and is being turned into a film starring Helen Mirren. Now, STC is premiering Murray-Smith’s new adaptation of Highsmith’s famous novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom Ripley (Will McDonald) is barely scraping by in 1950s New York. Dickie Greenleaf (Raj Labade) is everything Tom isn’t – confident, stylish and heir to a large fortune. When Tom is hired by Dickie’s father to bring his son home, he begins using his extraordinary capacity for mimicry and deception to model himself on his target. Sarah Goodes directs.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

From playwriting icon Joanna Murray-Smith comes this ravishing adaptation of the twentieth century’s most glamorous thriller. Following the triumphant successes of Switzerland and Julia, Murray-Smith reunites with director Sarah Goodes to masterfully transform this seductive page-turner into an electrifying, world-premiere stage experience.

Will McDonald (Heartbreak High) plays Tom Ripley, an orphan and a striver, barely scraping by in 1950s New York. But beneath his woebegone exterior, Tom cultivates certain talents that set him apart: an extraordinary capacity for mimicry and deception. He is a man with a face no-one remembers.

Whereas no one could forget Dickie Greenleaf (Raj Labade). He is everything Tom isn’t; confident, stylish, and heir to a large fortune. Tom is hired by Dickie’s father to bring his son home and so plunges him into a glittering world of luxury, beauty and hedonism on the Italian Riviera. Intoxicated with this new social scene, Tom begins to fashion himself after his target. He begins dancing like Dickie, dressing like him, and drinking like him. Tom begins to imagine another version of himself. A better one… and he’ll kill for it.