'Following the success of 'Fury' in 2013, playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, director Andrew Upton and actor Sarah Peirse join forces again for a suspenseful new thriller; a fictional postulation of an episode in the life of Patricia Highsmith. The spiky novelist, best known for her creation of the very talented con artist Tom Ripley, receives an unexpected visitor at her home in Switzerland - a young man sent by her publisher with the purpose of extracting one last Ripley novel from her before she dies. Switzerland cunningly explores what happens when the spark of life that a writer puts into a character has the potential to set off a fire and destroy more than it creates.' (Source: http://www.theatrepeople.com.au/newsflash/andrew-upton-announces-sydney-theatre-company%E2%80%99s-2014-season )
Performed 3 November to 20 December 2014, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Opening: Friday 7 November 2014.
Director: Andrew Upton.
Cast including Sarah Peirse.
Produced by the Queensland Theatre Company, 21 May to 26 June 2016.
Director: Paige Rattray.
Cast including Andrea Moor.
Produced by Melbourne Theatre Company at the Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 28 September to 29 October 2016.
Director: Sarah Goodes.
Set and Costume Designer: Michael Scott-Mitchell.
Lighting Designer: Nick Schlieper.
Composer and Sound Designer: Steve Francis.
Cast: Eamon Farren and Sarah Peirse.
Produced by Black Swan Theatre Company at the Heath Ledger Theatre, 19 August to 3 September 2017.
Director: Lawrie Cullen-Tait.
Sound Designer: Ash Gibson Greig.
Cast includes Jenny Davis (Patricia Highsmith).
Produced by the State Theatre Company of South Australia at the Dunstan Playhouse, 20 October to 5 November 2017.
Director: Nescha Jelk.
Designer: Ailsa Paterson.
Composer: Jason Sweeney.
Cast includes Sandy Gore.
Presented by Ensemble Theatre, Kirribili, 3 May - 8 June 2024.
Director: Shaun Rennie.
Cast includes Toni Scanlan.
'Patricia Highsmith is all the rage at the moment, so it's a good time to stage Joanna Murray-Smith's play about the writer.'
'This chapter considers contemporary re-visions of biographical theatre and maps a movement on the Australian mainstage between 2007 and 2020 away from a reliance on the verifiable facts of a subject’s life to a more theatrical embrace of its affective contours. Each of the case studies theatricalises the life of its subject, from Patricia Highsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland (2014), through Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in Letters to Lindy (2016) by Alana Valentine, to Mark Colvin and Mary-Ellen Field in Tommy Murphy’s Mark Colvin’s Kidney (2017). In the following duologue, Murphy and Valentine discuss the burden of truth that falls on the playwright and how they have negotiated the truth claims across their body of biographical theatre works.' (Publication abstract)
'With Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland set to open in Adelaide, Sandy Gore chats about playing the 'mercurial' author that was Patricia Highsmith and what sort of truths there are to be found in her most famous creation, Tom Ripley.
Sandy Gore says she doesn’t see herself as just an actor. Her role is more than calling out lines as part of a play; it’s to tell a story.' (Introduction)
'With Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland set to open in Adelaide, Sandy Gore chats about playing the 'mercurial' author that was Patricia Highsmith and what sort of truths there are to be found in her most famous creation, Tom Ripley.
Sandy Gore says she doesn’t see herself as just an actor. Her role is more than calling out lines as part of a play; it’s to tell a story.' (Introduction)
'This chapter considers contemporary re-visions of biographical theatre and maps a movement on the Australian mainstage between 2007 and 2020 away from a reliance on the verifiable facts of a subject’s life to a more theatrical embrace of its affective contours. Each of the case studies theatricalises the life of its subject, from Patricia Highsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland (2014), through Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in Letters to Lindy (2016) by Alana Valentine, to Mark Colvin and Mary-Ellen Field in Tommy Murphy’s Mark Colvin’s Kidney (2017). In the following duologue, Murphy and Valentine discuss the burden of truth that falls on the playwright and how they have negotiated the truth claims across their body of biographical theatre works.' (Publication abstract)
