When a fiction writer becomes so obsessed with her characters that fiction and reality become blurred for her and when these characters are psychologically twisted in macabre situations, then a real cocktail of intrigue and mystery is created, which Joanna Murray-Smith has created in her play Switzerland about the later life of writer Patricia Highsmith.

Well-known author of such works as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley, Highsmith was a curmudgeonly character for most of her life, difficult to get on with, an alcoholic, repressed lesbian and racist amongst other things. She also had a penchant for collecting murder weapons.

Her writing was in the genre of psychological thriller which Murray-Smith has expertly used in her play with short sharp, biting lines between the characters as the cut and thrust of the word play unfolds on stage. [More] 

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When English novelist Graham Greene called American novelist Patricia Highsmith “the poet of apprehension”, I expect he was referring to trepidation. Apprehension also means understanding and being arrested. All three meanings apply to Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland, as directed by Susan Wilson at Circa Theatre. 

Set in her house in Tenga, Switzerland, the play imagines the final chapter in Highsmith’s life over three scenes, from one morning to the next. Our attention is arrested from the first exchange between the compulsively crabby writer and her just-arrived visitor, a neatly dressed and fresh-faced Edward Ridgeway.

“You’re late,” she says. Is that a threat? Highsmith is best known, after all, for her psychological thrillers. It quickly emerges that Ridgeway follows in the footsteps of one Bradley Appleby who is still recovering from the trauma of his brief visit. We apprehend immediately that she doesn’t suffer fools gladly and there are probably not many people in the world she doesn’t regard as a fool. It also becomes apparent she is a racist and her derisive put-downs arise from fear of difference and change. Hence her escape to Switzerland’s remote south and into a fictional world of amoral intrigue.

Ridgeway is an eager young emissary from Highsmith’s publisher in New York City and his mission is to get her signature on a contract to write “another Ripley” – Tom Ripley being her most successful and famous creation. Will she or won’t she and what will it take are the questions that draw us in, inexorably, as the sense of trepidation grows – underscored by Gareth Farr’s music: often floating and flowing yet with dangerous undercurrents.

Tony De Goldi’s astute set design with its feature-wall of weapons, lit by Marcus McShane, also floats somewhat amid the darkness Highsmith revels in. Sheila Horton’s excellent costumes simultaneously suit the scenes yet offer small clues … And director Susan Wilson has brought the whole package together with an ideal cast.

Catherine Downes is a mesmerising Patricia Highsmith, as apprehension-inducing as any insidious bully is who demands your constant attention in the interest of self-preservation. A superb character study, riddled with surprises, just when you think you have her pegged. In crafting this multi-layered portrait, Murray-Smith honours both Highsmith and her writing skill, and Downes’s performance honours them both.

Simon Leary’s progression from ‘innocent abroad on a fool’s errand’, through steely determination to suave élan is beautifully nuanced. The subtle shifts in status constantly demand we re-evaluate who might win, who might lose – and what exactly might the prize be.  

Throughout the production’s impeccably modulated 100 minutes we revel in the richness, wit and slivers of menace in Murray-Smith’s test, delivered so trippingly by the actors. Not for nothing do they luxuriate in words like transgression and transformation. Only in retrospect, in the wake of its brilliantly-wrought twist, do we fully apprehend the depth of thought, feeling and craft that has gone into the research, development and execution of this extraordinary play.

Anyone suffering withdrawal from the NZ Festival in Wellington – or the NZ Fringe, which comes to an end this week – should book their tickets for Switzerland now. Being in the intimate Circa Two, I predict the houses will fill very quickly. 

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