Switzerland is the somewhat unhelpfully titled play about the last days of the ghastly, wonderful US novelist Patricia Highsmith. Although usually described as a crime or thriller writer, Highsmith was much more. She was also an unquestionably nasty piece of work, many of whose works were nasty pieces. Although her Tom Ripley books were commercially successful and are her best known, they are actually a small part of her output: just five of a diverse catalogue of 22 novels.
Among other things, Pat, as she was known, was meanspirited, sexually voracious, hard-drinking, grudge-bearing, bitter and misanthropic ‒ all qualities that inform her work and are not glossed over in Joanna Murray-Smith’s tightly written stage thriller, which focuses on her last days. Although not true to the facts of her life, it is true to her character.
The play has a complicated pedigree. It was commissioned from the author by Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse, but for various
