Classic thriller is first play for EastEnders star - Eastbourne dates
After years in EastEnders, an experience she loved, Maisie Smith is delighted to be on the road with her first play.
And what a play to start with, the critically acclaimed first-ever UK and international tour of The Talented Mr Ripley, with dates including the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne from March 30-April 4.
The tour started before Christmas, and Maisie is delighted to return to the role of Marge Sherwood: “It is incredible. It is such a timeless story and that's why I was so excited before I even began. I had seen the film and I'd seen the series as well and it's great because Marge is such an integral part of the story which again makes her really exciting to play. She's very smart and very intuitive and she's very progressive for the times.
“It is set in the 1950s. She is a writer and photographer and lives on her own in a foreign city. There's so much about her, and from early on she is one of the only people in Tom's web of lies that is suspicious of him and doesn't quite trust his facade and the way he is manipulating people. That's part of her intuition.”
In the piece, Tom Ripley is a nobody – until he’s offered an unexpected opportunity: travel to Italy and bring home the wealthy and carefree Dickie Greenleaf. But as Tom is drawn into Dickie’s glittering world of privilege, his obsession takes a dark turn. What begins as an innocent invitation spirals into a web of lies, identity theft, and murder.
Set against the sun-drenched backdrop of 1950s Italy, this stage adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley promises Patricia Highsmith’s iconic novel with razor-sharp dialogue, psychological intensity and a chillingly charismatic antihero…
“I watched the film and I watched the series but really you just have to try to focus on what you are portraying and focus on the script in front of you,” Maisie said. “And it’s a great era, and we've all got to do the accents. We did have a dialect coach and it was so fascinating to work with.
“I do really enjoy the touring. Touring can be tiring but it's really enjoyable to be travelling for work and being in different places each week. There will be some shows where the audience will really warm to a particular scene and they will react in a different way to another, and sometimes you can really hear them gasp, and again that's exciting. You like to feel their reaction.
“I started off in TV and then in 2021 I did my first musical. I've done a couple of musicals which I've really enjoyed and have really enjoyed being on stage but this is my first play and it's a really great one to start with. I'm just very lucky. Everything I do has been very different. I always try to be very open minded about work. And I've always wanted to do a play. I had just finished another job and I was auditioning for different types of jobs when this one came knocking. I was just super excited.”
Maisie was six when she started in EastEnders: “When I first got there I remember saying to my mum ‘I don't really want to live here!’ and she said ‘You're not living here! This is not real life!’ But I was just so fascinated by being a different character and not having to go to school! That was really lush! But the whole thing runs in the family. My mum did get into drama school and when she had kids she wanted us to be able to try everything. She put us both into sports and acting just to see what really excited us.”