Patricia Highsmiths novel, written in 1955, is the first of five about the eponymous fraudster who cons, cheats and lies his way through life and most of Europe. Owing to a case of mistaken identity, Tom Ripley is employed by millionaire Richard Greenleaf and his dying wife to track down their son Dicky who is frittering away his privileged existence in Italy. Ripley agrees, travels to Europe and effortlessly assumes the identity of the schoolfriend of Dickys hes thought to be. He inveigles his way into the relationship between Dicky and his girlfriend Marge. Things go well at first, but when it becomes apparent that Tom is infatuated with Dicky, and that his feelings may be reciprocated, Marge is less than pleased. After many twists and turns, including the arrival of someone from Dickys past who rumbles Ripley, the story speeds on to its murderous conclusion. Like all novels this tale presents serious challenges if one is to transfer it to the stage. Reading University Drama Society here present Phyllis Nagys 1998 script, and though the acting is pretty good the complexities of the novel cant really be presented in an hour. On one level a thriller, the novel is also a complex and fascinating exploration of truth and lies, identity, sense of self, and what constitutes moral behaviour. Dan Whitely is pretty good as the eponymous anti-hero, even looking a little bit like Matt Damon who took on the part in the feature film version. Theres good work from the rest of the cast, though the lines were very shaky the day I saw it The production is also not aided by this space, which is simply a black box, with neither raised stage nor raked seating. If youre towards the back you wont see very well, and this kind of dead space needs something more than the script and actors to convey the feel of such an exotic book. The costumes are terrific, but we get little sense of location or place, with not even minimal set and rather dull and unimaginative lighting. However, if you havent seen it before or read the book this will give you a flavour of the original. One word of warning. The start time as advertised is wrong. It actually goes up ten minutes past the hour, which is ten minutes after the advertised time. When I politely enquired why this was I was told it was supposed to go up at ten minutes after the hour, and when I pointed to the time printed on my ticket was greeted with a shrug. This is the third show I have seen which has either gone up intentionally later than the advertised starting time or finished considerably earlier than expected. Has there been some kind of mix up about what constitutes a playing slot when programming these venues? Most people in Edinburgh are on finely tuned schedules, cramming several shows into the day, and need to know how to plan.
