Switzerland
by Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by Lucy Bailey
Designed by William Dudley
Ustinov Studio, Bath Theatre Royal
Wednesday 22nd August 2018, 14.30
CAST:
Phyllis Logan – Patricia Highsmith
Calum Finlay – Edward Ridgeway, an editor
Joanna Murray-Smith is a prolific Australian playwright, and Switzerland debuted in Australia in 2014. Switzerland is centred on the real crime writer Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995). We booked it on the basis of Lucy Bailey directing it. Also, Bath’s Ustinov Studio is having a very good season. They also go to way more trouble with set than the usual studio theatre space. Here the set design by Walter Dudley echoes Highsmith’s actual Swiss house with high rectangular windows with Swiss chocolate box mountain views. The central one frames the unseen stairs. Then her fascination with Europe is in the classical statues, and her fascination with weapons is shown in the wall displays. A photo of Alfred Hitchcock, who directed her Strangers On A Train, sits on her bureau
There are echoes of recent plays about writers, notably Murder, Margaret & Me about Agatha Christie and Margaret Rutherford, and a 2016 revival of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap at Salisbury Playhouse. The enigmatic visitor who becomes threatening also reminded me of John Whiting’s Saint’s Day which I directed at university.Whatever happened to interest in John Whiting?
Edward arrives: Phyllis Logan as Patricia Highsmith Calum Finlay as Edward Ridgeway
It’s 1995. Highsmith is a recluse in Switzerland and an editor has been sent from her New York publisher to persuade her to sign a contract for another “Mr Ripley” murder mystery. It enables her to rail against New York editors and to demand the supplies she’d asked for, such as notebooks, Campbell’s mushroom soup and a mirror polished knife. She’s widely and thoroughly racist and highly irascible and curmudgeonly. She’s also funny. She hates black people, she says. The young editor corrects her to “African-American.” No, it’s not just African-Americans she hates, its all black people, she replies. She hates Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer. She really hates publishers and editors and we transpire that the last one sent over is still suffering a nervous breakdown after waking in the night with her knife at his throat. I have to say, any writer who has had to deal with New York publishers, as we have done, would be quietly cheering her on in these diatribes. Sorry, I did like some of you, but not a majority. In the play, Highsmith says writers cannot be nice about people or consider their feelings, you see.
Phyllis Logan as Patricia Highsmith. Calum Finlay in rear window, ascending the stairs
Eventually, Edward gets to stay overnight, and she’ll sign the deal but only IF he comes up with a great Mr Ripley murder for the proposed new story. The next day he’s smarter, no longer cowed. They start hitting the whisky / brandy.
And then it turns enigmatic. No plot spoilers, but he’s not what he appears to be and there’s no happy ending. Over to the director:
I had never read any of the Ripley novels before I was offered this one. But I was immediately fascinated by the character. But I think the play works for those who know Highsmith’s work as well as audiences who are not familiar with it. “Switzerland” is a Frankenstein story about a writer who creates her own monster.” Lucy Bailey, programme notes.
We have two great performances … and two people speaking without much action has to be REALLY good to keep me interested. It is REALLy good. We knew Phyllis Logan was superb already. Calum Finlay was a revelation. As we said afterwards, Phyllis Logan has an uphill job too, as we are so imprinted with the basic kindness of her character “Mrs Hughes” in Downton Abbey. She succeeds.
Phyllis Logan
They’re playing it at 1 hour 40 minutes with no interval. I can see why, and it’s the desire not to lose tension, but there is a clear lights down and overnight time break at 55 minutes in, which could easily have been an interval point. It’s OK normally, but the raked seats at the Ustinov have no foot room below the seats in front. It was extremely uncomfortable for us tall people by the end. And to a large degree the main tension builds AFTER that first overnight point. There are three distinct “acts” marked by Edward’s changes of clothing. I’d rather it were played with one interval after the first. Good for ice cream sales too.
I haven’t read any Patricia Highsmith, but nor had the director, Lucy Bailey. It doesn’t stop you following it. I can’t remember much about the film versions of either Strangers On A Train (Hitchcock) nor The Talented Mr Ripley, but this play made me want to re-watch them, or read them. The film version of her 1952 novel, Carol (aka The Price of Salt) is reviewed on this blog.
Calum Finlay as Edward Ridgeway in the third section
Trivia :Brendan Coyle was Mr Bates in Downtown Abbey and is in The Price at Bath Theatre Royal. Right next door in Bath’s Ustinov studio, Phyllis Logan is starring as Patricia Highsmith in Switzerland. She played Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey. Three of the cast of The Price were in the audience at this matinee performance.
Overall:
****
THE PROGRAMME
Very thin for £4, but I guess there are only two cast bios to fit in.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
4 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian ****
Robert Gore-Langdon, Mail On Sunday ****
Thomas W. Hodgkinson, Sunday Times ****
Jeremy Brien, The Stage ****
Kris Hallett, What’s On Stage ****
PATRICIA HIGHSMITH
LUCY BAILEY
Titus Andronicus, The Globe
The Taming of The Shrew, RSC 2012
The Winter’s Tale, RSC 2013
Fortune’s Fool, The Old Vic, 2014
The Importance of Being Earnest (Bunbury Players) 2014
King Lear, Bath 2013
Comus, by John Milton, Wanamaker Playhouse 2016
PHYLLIS LOGAN
Present Laughter, by Noel Coward Bath 2016
CALUM FINLAY
The Merry Wives of Windsor, RSC 2012 (Slender)
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