We may be edging toward peak risk-averse programming here, but you can’t argue with the quality of the final product. Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, director Sarah Goodes and designer Elizabeth Gadsby turn Patricia Highsmith’s thriller into a sleek and restless two hours of theatre.

This is the stage equivalent of a classic page-turner: fast-paced, economical and incident-packed.

Will McDonald in The Talented Mr Ripley. Photo © Prudence Upton

There can’t be many people who don’t at least know the outline of the story by now. A bestseller in print when it was published in 1955, The Talented Mr Ripley has long been a magnet for filmmakers, beginning with 1960’s Plein Soliel (directed by René Clément, with Alain Delon in the central role). Matt Damon gave us the preppy version of Ripley in Anthony Minghella’s glossy 1999 film, co-starring Jude Law as the wayward golden boy Dickie Greenleaf.

Only last year, Netflix released its gripping serialised version in gorgeous black and white, with Andrew Scott closer to the amoral queer opportunist depicted in Highsmith’s novel. This version maintains that reading though with the much more youthful Will McDonald as the...