Review: The Talented Mr Ripley (Touring)

Monday, 19th January 2026 at the Grand Opera House, York

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Talented Mr Ripley is the latest big time screen to stage adaptation – it promises an intriguing tale of stolen identity, fraud and murder, and boasts an excellent cast for the telling of the tale. There’s plenty of tension and intrigue along the way, but a confused approach to the staging of this story unfortunately leaves the cast a little adrift despite cracking performances. 

Ed Mcvey is excellent as Tom Ripley himself – opportunistic, fawning and calculating to begin with before descending into ominous confidence while plagued by anxious rumination. Ultimately though, the ruthlessness and willingness to abandon himself win out, and the performance from McVey is an impressively relentless roller coaster. 

Bruce Herbelin-Earle is all suave charm and a magnetic dismissive energy as Dickie Greenleaf; perfect pickings for the disillusioned Ripley looking to live life as someone more interesting than himself. Maisie Smith’s take on Marge Sherwood is also faultless, spanning the journey from bemusement to real concern and confusion beautifully – and the chemistry between all three is great.

For me though, with the fresh eye of someone who has heard of the movie but not set eyes on it, the staging feels patchy. Patricia Highsmith’s tale, adapted and directed by Mark Leipacher, may be set in “sun-drenched glamour of 1950s Italy” but the staging here doesn’t do too much to conjure such things. Leipacher has opted for what is almost a black box production, with Holly Pigott’s set design centring a platform on which all action takes place – an inventive use of chasm in the centre allows for creative comings and goings, and a later scene flies in a panorama, but all else is suggestion with props, costume and dialogue. This is generally fine of course, when done well, but the staging is decidedly confused in approach. 

Experience the opening scene and you might feel like you’re headed for a Marianne Elliot style of production, with bustling stylised movement and a busy ensemble cast conjuring places and atmospheres, à la The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. But the promising opening moments which feel almost like a Hitchcock spy thriller eager to take off, tapers out and is replaced by more traditional scenes of dialogue. The ensemble cast return at intervals to bring some atmosphere and stylised movement while delivering props or smoothing out the creases of scene changes, but the intermittent nature of it feels off-key, leaving what could be impactful physicality feeling just a bit odd as it plays out randomly on the edges of the stage.

More successful are the disjointed elements which work well to toy with reality as Ripley spirals and tries to survive as the noose tightens – ensemble actors invade scenes and re-set them, forcing the narrative in alternative directions while planting hypotheticals in our minds as we too navigate the web Ripley weaves. Those moments feel crisp and purposeful, matching the central performances for fire and tension – if the approach to the more stylised physical moments were on the same level, the production would be so much more powerful.

All in all, The Talented Mr Ripley is worth seeing for the twisting tale and strong central performances, but for me, the performances are significantly stronger than the staging in this case.

The show is at the Grand Opera House, York until January 24th 2026 – more information and tickets can be found here.