Acclaimed Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith will return to the engrossing world of American novelist Patricia Highsmith with a glamourous adaptation of the 20th century’s most iconic psychological thriller, The Talented Mr. Ripley at Arts Centre Melbourne.
The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) production is set to make its Melbourne debut at the Playhouse from 28 October – 23 November 2025 direct from the world premiere Sydney season in August.
Following the triumphant successes of STC’s Julia and Switzerland (an original thriller inspired by Highsmith), Murray-Smith will reunite with director Sarah Goodes to masterfully transform the seductive page-turner The Talented Mr. Ripley into an electrifying stage experience.
The Melbourne season will star some of Australia’s hottest screen and stage talent, including: Will McDonald (Netflix’s Heartbreak High), Claude Scott-Mitchell (Binge’s The Last Anniversary), Faisal Hamza (ABC’s House of Gods), Andrew McFarlane (ABC’S The Newsreader) and Johnny Nasser (Heartbreak High). The role of Dickie Greenleaf for the Melbourne season is to be announced.
McDonald plays Tom Ripley, an orphan and a hustler, barely scraping by in 1950s New York. Beneath his woebegone exterior, Tom cultivates certain talents that set him apart: an extraordinary capacity for mimicry and deception.
He is a man with a face no-one remembers. Whereas no one could forget Dickie Greenleaf, a confident, stylish heir to a large fortune who introduces Ripley into the glittering world of luxury, beauty and hedonism on the Italian Riviera. Intoxicated with this new social scene, Tom begins to fashion himself after Greenleaf and imagine for himself a life, a life he’d kill for.
Joanna Murray-Smith says that reuniting with director Sarah Goodes to bring literature’s most alluring confidence man to life was a ‘job sent from heaven’: ”I have long been invested in The Talented Ms Highsmith and her wildly strange and brilliant mind. The world’s most famous serial killer has been waiting for his moment in the spotlight and it’s now,” said Murray-Smith.
For 70 years, the character Tom Ripley has captivated readers and cinephiles alike. Various film and television adaptations have been made of Highsmith’s 1955 novel, including the 1999 cult film starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett.
“It’s remarkable how enduring the appeal of The Talented Mr. Ripley remains, 70 years after Patricia Highsmith first published her novel. There’s something perennially intriguing about Tom Ripley, a character on the fringes, whose need for acceptance outweighs any moral code,” said director Sarah Goodes.
“The stage is the perfect setting for such rich psychological material, his slippery identity, his shame and his cunning talent for impersonation. It’s a real privilege to unite once again with Joanna Murray-Smith and Sydney Theatre Company to bring the mercurial Tom Ripley to life with this outstanding cast and creative team.”
Sydney Theatre Company’s new stage adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley will premiere at the Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney from 19 August, prior to playing at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse from 28 October – 23 November 2025.
Sydney Theatre Company has been a major force in Australian drama since its establishment in 1978 and recently announced the international debut of its adaptation of Dracula, starring Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, set for the UK’s West End next year.
This follows the Olivier Award-winning and Tony-nominated West End and Broadway seasons of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which stars Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Australian actress Sarah Snook.
The Talented Mr Ripley is the fifth STC production to tour to Arts Centre Melbourne in recent years, with Joanna Murray-Smith and Sarah Goodes’ previous collaboration, Julia – a portrait and re-examination of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s 2012 speech – set to open at the Playhouse from 25 June – 19 July 2025.
Other STC productions that have played successful runs at Arts Centre Melbourne include, two seasons of Suzie Miller’s RBG: Of Many One (2024 and 2025), the adaptation of Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words (2024) and the original production of Kip Williams’ cine-theatre hit, The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Eryn Jean Norvill (2022).
To access The Talented Mr. Ripley presale tickets from Thursday 12 June at 12.00pm, click here to join the waitlist! General public tickets go on sale Wednesday 18 June at 12.00pm.
Image: Will McDonald will star as Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley – photo by Derek Henderson