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The Talented Mr Ripley at The Belgrade

  • 14 minutes ago
  • 2 min read
Ed McVey (Centre) at Tom Ripley with the cast. Photo by Mark Senior.
Ed McVey (Centre) at Tom Ripley with the cast. Photo by Mark Senior.

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, adapted and directed by Mark Leipacher, at the Belgrade Theatre from 13 to 18 April. 

Review by Amanda Burden


In many ways But Is It Cake? is the clearest illustration of the post-truth era we find ourselves lurching about in, like a drunk person heading to the bar on a Friday night. For the uninitiated: BITC? Is a game show that involves earnest contestants squinting at what appears to be an everyday object – shoes, handbags, existential dread – and trying to determine whether it is, in fact, a delicious jam, cream and sponge-based illusion. And what sums up the modern world better than that? We live in an age where everyone transforms themselves into an airbrushed version online – filtered, soft focussed, held together with digital sticky tape – in an attempt to secure love/ followers/ money/ validation from total strangers.


Maisie Smith as Marge Sherwood and Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Dickie Greenleaf. Photo by Mark Senior.
Maisie Smith as Marge Sherwood and Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Dickie Greenleaf. Photo by Mark Senior.

This is not a new phenomenon. William Shakespeare called it 400 years ago when he confidently proclaimed that ‘all that glisters is not gold’. But if Shakespeare foretold cheap bling, then Patricia Highsmith, creator of The Talented Mr Ripley, predicted catfishing – the modern art of assuming a fake identity for fun or profit. Shakespeare may have warned us about fake jewellery, but Highsmith saw the danger of becoming the jewellery itself.


Ed McVey, star of The Crown, in the title role of Ripley at the Belgrade Theatre, is pure American Psycho – a guileless unassuming exterior hides a stone-cold psychopath who will stop at nothing to further his aims – and smile winningly while he does it. His transformation from bumbling Billy Liar-esque underdog to charming Gatsby-style fantasist, and finally to Partick Bateman killer, is smooth and assured. 


Ed McVey as Tom Ripley. Photo by Mark Senior.
Ed McVey as Tom Ripley. Photo by Mark Senior.

This blurring of certainty is mirrored in director Mark Leipacher’s sparse but innovative staging – a film crew appear unannounced to demand a cut, scenes are replayed endlessly until the effect is just right. The effect is alarmingly disconcerting – are these directions for Ripley or the audience? Bruce Herbelin-Earle gets the suave homoeroticism of Dickie Greenleaf down to a tee, even though his delivery is slightly too louche for my liking on occasion. And Maisie Smith, as WASP princess Marge Sherwood, is convincing and slick, her demeanour as chilly as the enormous status symbol fridge she emerges from in one arresting scene.


Ultimately this show is less of a crime drama and more of a warning to a world obsessed with appearance: that what lies beneath a beautiful exterior may be ugly and dangerous. Like that perfectly iced cake masquerading as a handbag, what we see may be solid and enticing  - until you slice into it. It’s a stark reminder that a lie itself isn’t the most dangerous thing – it’s the enthusiasm with which people are fooled.


 

 


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