Switzerland

Queensland Theatre Company's production of Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith reimagines the end of celebrated crime author Patricia Highsmith's (The Talented Mr Ripley) life as a hermit in the Swiss Alps, with one final suspense-filled drama left to unfold.

An underling from her publishing company, Edward Ridgeway, is sent to convince Highsmith that she still has one more Ripley story to tell to secure her place in the canon of great writers. Highsmith is caustic and offensive at first, but Ridgeway intrigues her and quickly manages to get under her skin.

The first half of the play is slightly jumpy; the quips fly so fast that the audience is left breathless, and it takes a while to settle into the to and fro between characters. When the two actors (Andrea Moor as Highsmith and Matthew Backer as Ridgeway) are allowed some stillness to settle into their characters, the shifting power dynamic and chemistry between the performers becomes much more engaging.

Moor gives Highsmith a tense kind of power, hiding underlying vulnerability, while Backer's talent is particularly shown in the dramatic transformation of Edward Ridgeway from nervous but determined fan to something much more dangerous. Rich set design and lighting, drawing on elements of noir cinema as well as the classy simplicity of the author's actual home in the Alps, also helps to immerse the audience in the psychologically claustrophobic world of these two characters. The early light-heartedness works well to enhance the sinister and intense final scene, with a climax that is heavily foreshadowed but still shocking.