The Talented Mr Ripley at Maidment Theatre

By PETER CALDER

Phyllis Nagy's play is a good deal darker than the Anthony Minghella film by which this story is most widely known, less a murder thriller than a portrait of malignity which focuses tightly on Tom Ripley's pretty dodgy psychopathology.

Ripley's talent for impersonation finds its perfect outlet in his relationship with Dickie Greenleaf, the sybaritic heir to a shipping fortune. Dickie's parents send Tom to Italy to retrieve their wayward son; instead, Tom decides to become him.

It's a fascinating idea and Nagy spins dramatic gold from it. The play - dense, allusive, cryptic - is a minutely detailed piece in which scenes overlap and interlace.

The story's manifold ironies are thrown into stark relief because events widely separated in time and space occur side-by-side or even simultaneously.

The result is a play which takes us deep inside Ripley's head (where, it might be argued, all the action takes place anyway).

As a piece of writing it has the smell of greatness about it because it is more than a study of villainy; it is steeped in the idea that deception might satisfy the needs of the duped as well as the deceiver.

In its conception, this handsome production grapples vigorously with the play's psychological elements.

Sean Coyle's spare design uses pier-like walkways which conjure up the mostly Mediterranean setting but the main action takes place in the centre on a black platform whose tilt neatly conveys a sense of uncertainty and contested space.

But often the direction is driven by the design when it ought to be the other way around. The characters move like pieces on a chessboard and so their interactions at key moments lack the conviction that might compel us.

To some extent that's the result of the relative youth of the main players, who may be inhabiting characters they don't completely understand.

Benjamin Farry as the gauche and slobbish Freddie is a notable exception: his scenes are the evening's best because they have pace and drama rather than relying on style.

Glen Drake's Ripley lacks the reptilian charm which would lend his character plausibility and add impact to the moments when he explodes. And neither he nor Dickie (Chris Stewart) ever really taps into the vein of homoeroticism that runs through their relationship.

Still, it's a challenging and interesting night at the theatre and a promising start to the ATC's year.