As Rychcik underlines, although the text is well known, it had never been staged in Poland.
It’s a great title, because I think the Polish viewer has a relation with it through Anthony Minghella’s film; we think this film is a common experience, maybe even a form of thinking about leisure in Italy.
– joked Rychcik during rehearsals in Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Studio Theatre.
He also believes it is:
... a title worth playing. There’s crime, beautiful actors, everything you need to create an animated play. The act of killing is a weird ritual, which we tell each other all the time, as if we were trying to convince ourselves that if we are going to watch it in the theatre or on screen, it’s not going to happen in real life. This play talks about how to write one’s own story and where it starts. And it starts with a name and a surname, with presenting yourself. We want it to be a good thriller, filled with suspense for two hours. We want the viewer to leave stunned, as after leaving the cinema.
The play directed by Rychcik is based on Mary Patricia Highsmith’s novel, published in 1955. The Talented Mr Ripley is the first of five volumes about a charming psychopath who thinks he's outside of the system of blame and punishment. In 1996 Anthony Minghella made a film adaption starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Writing the adaptation, I thought that telling the so-called “story” is not that important; what’s important are elements which draw the viewer in. Our Ripley is more cruel, more psychopathic and bloody.
– said Rychcik.
Starring: Natalia Rybicka, Marcin Bosak, Tomasz Nosiński, Modest Ruciński, Wojciech Żołądkowicz; costumes and set design: Anna Maria Karczmarska; adapted and directed by: Radosław Rychcik.
Sources: PAP, teatrstudio.pl, opr. TS.