The Talented Mr Ripley at Richmond Theatre
This 2025/2026 touring production of The Talented Mr Ripley might seem like a bold, fresh idea to many theatregoers. It is, however, a revival of London-based theatre company The Faction’s 2015 ensemble adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 crime novel that was originally performed at the intimate New Diorama Theatre.
This revival, though, with original artistic director of The Faction, Mark Leipacher, at the directorial helm, seems a little lost now it’s being performed in large proscenium arch theatres; fortunately, though, while the company do not seem as tightly knit as the 2015 cast, Ed McVey’s enthralling interpretation as con man Tom Ripley does enough to keep the production engaging.
With Ripley as this adaptation’s centrepiece, we see him, in act one, inveigling his way to the fictional Italian town of Mongibello, where he becomes obsessed with Dickie Greenleaf (Bruce Herbelin-Earle). In act two, he has to duck and dive his way around Europe, desperately trying to evade exposure for his crimes while he impersonates Dickie to enjoy the finer things in life.
Though the structure of the second act, in particular, becomes repetitive, McVey is an absorbing presence throughout; indeed, he provides more of an emotionally wrought, tortured characterisation than the steely allure exuded by Matt Damon in the award-winning 1999 film adaptation many will be familiar with.
It is a shame, though, that Leipacher’s version does not allow many of the other characters that Ripley encounters to revel in the spotlight as Minghella’s screenplay does. Be it Greenleaf’s love interest, Marge Sherwood (Maisie Smith) or his friend Freddie Miles (Cary Crankson), the other roles aside from Ripley and Dickie, hardly have any opportunities to display emotional depth. Moreover, apart from a smouldering undercurrent of homo-erotic tension between McVey and Herbelin-Earle’s characters, the other relationships in the play aren’t fully developed or explored.
Fortunately, the absence of such elements is overshadowed by McVey’s magnetism. His electrically taut take on Ripley in the second act keeps the audience as hooked as they seem to be in the first.
Overall, though the tagline “prior to the West End” has been dropped from recent promotional posters, the bright talent that is McVey alone could certainly allow the show to get there if it is able to find such a hallowed slot.
Francis Nash
Photo: Mark Senior
The Talented Mr Ripley is at Richmond Theatre until 15th November 2025. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.
Watch the trailer for The Talented Mr Ripley at Richmond Theatre here:
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