The Talented Mr Ripley
★★☆☆☆ Unsubstantiated
Festival Theatre: Tue 16 – Sat 20 Sept 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Mark Leipacher’s adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley for The Faction tours to the Festival Theatre until Saturday in a production that lacks conviction, logic, and the tension required to live up to its billing as a psychological thriller.
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name, the play follows nondescript New York man Tom Ripley (Ed McVey) through a series of misadventures when he is hired by Herbert Greenleaf (Christopher Bianchi) to persuade his wayward son Dickie (Bruce Herbelin-Earle) to return home from Italy where he is living with his American girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Maisie Smith).
Bruce Herbelin-Earle (Dickie Greenleaf) and Ed McVey (Tom Ripley) seated, with the cast in The Talented Mr Ripley. Pic: Mark Senior.
The show’s programme describes Ripley as “a charming psychopath”, “suave and chameleon-like” and “a cold-blooded and prolific killer and an accomplished con artist” – with whom the reader of the original novels is meant to sympathise when the misadventures turn to forgery, identity theft and murder.
These are clear indications that the play intends to be as faithful to its source material in its portrayal of the title character as it is with the plot.
Sadly, it is not. Rather than the expected psychological thriller – driven by Ripley’s connivance, obsession, and jealousy – this adaptation sees him staggering into, and panicking through, a series of events that are little more than accidents.
a reactive nobody
Leipacher, directing his own script which the company first staged in 2015, makes Ripley into a reactive nobody; there is nothing here to indicate his calculatedness, his jealousy of Dickie and overwhelming obsession with Dickie’s lifestyle.
Dickie’s murder becomes a crime of passion: the only moment of real tension in the play, it comes out of nowhere, unjustified even by the production’s choice to emphasise the potential gayness of Ripley’s ambiguous sexuality— which in itself is handled clunkily.
Ed McVey (centre) as Tom Ripley & the cast of The Talented Mr Ripley. Pic: Mark Senior.
Apart from its flawed internal logic and poor characterisation, two major conventions of this Ripley fail to work in its favour.
Ripley’s lengthy monologues in direct address to the audience do not contribute as they should: our window into Ripley’s mind tells us nothing about him, only gives him permission to ramble at us.
Then, the periodic shouts of “CUT, RESET FOR ANOTHER TAKE” by a member of the ensemble, accompanied by blinding white flashes of light and a physical rewinding of actors to earlier in the scene are a concept that has not been integrated in a meaningful way.
random
This convention seems to by trying to indicate that Ripley is imagining how a conversation might go, changing his mind and trying a different tactic (or several) before the scene finally plays out the way things actually happened. But its use is so random as to be meaningless and irritating, nor is it tied into any larger conceptual frame.
The set, designed by Holly Pigott, is similarly conceptually unsuccessful, being comprised of a large elevated square with a hole in the middle through which actors and props can appear and disappear. Several long white benches make pathways on and off the stage, though there is no consistency as to when they are used.
Upstage, a rolling flat and a staircase are used to indicate some of the play’s different locations. All of this is interesting and slickly choreographed, but more often than not, dramatically meaningless. It’s all a bit knock-off Jamie Lloyd.
Ed McVey (centre) as Tom Ripley & the cast in The Talented Mr Ripley. Pic: Mark Senior.
As Ripley, McVey delivers a disappointingly one-note performance, bulldozing through Ripley’s extensive dialogue. This could well be a problem of direction combined with the weaknesses of the script: McVey expends tremendous energy working with the material he has, but there are no subtleties to his Ripley.
Many moments that ought to have been zingers are trampled on before they’re allowed to be funny, as if McVey (or Ripley himself) is more eager to spit out the words and show how smart he is than to wait for the audience.
Few of the other actors have a lot to work with, but there are a some standouts. Leda, multi-roling as seven characters, is distinctive and memorable throughout, bringing accomplished physical work and commitment to each role.
Jason Eddy is excellent as the sympathetic Peter Smith-Kingsley, Ripley’s companion late in the play, and Maisie Smith works hard as Marge Sherwood to wring as much nuance as possible out of her role as the third member of the conflicted Ripley-Dickie-Marge triad.
precise and commendable
The ensemble are precise and commendable in their movement work, directed by Sarita Piotrowski. As the movers of the production’s set pieces and props, as well as creators of its atmospheric background characters, this show would not work without them. Even if they are woefully underused, most of the time, for any dramatic purpose.
There are areas of this Ripley that could have been strengths: perhaps Ripley’s responses to his own violence are an attempt to humanise him to a greater degree than the novels; perhaps the concept of a film playing out inside Ripley’s mind might be expanded; perhaps the lack of premeditation on Ripley’s part is an attempt to show that anyone could become this kind of person under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, these are all speculations, unsubstantiated by the text or its delivery.
An injustice to the name of thriller, this adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley speaks truth to Ripley’s repeated complaint: “it’s all so boring.”
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes (including one interval)
Festival Theatre, 13-29 Nicolson St. EH8 9FT
Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 September 2025
Evenings: 7:30pm; Thurs/Sat mats: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Access performances: The 7:30pm show on the 18th will be captioned; the 2:30pm show on the 20th will be BSL interpreted, audio described, and have a touch tour before the show.
ENDS
