The symbiosis between playwright Joanna Murray-Smith and actress Sarah Peirse is potent and thrilling. It was first seen in Sydney in 2013’s Fury (STC, Wharf 1) and it reaches another level in Switzerland – Murray-Smith’s imagining of the last days in the life of Patricia Highsmith.

The play is an alchemical combination of Murray-Smith’s deep, darkly soaring flight of fancy and Peirse’s thoroughly grounded and authentic portrayal of the author (voice coach Charmian Gradwell has helped her conjure up the curious voice of a Texan who also spoke good French and German). The result is an absorbing, uninterrupted 100 minutes whose cunning twists and final turn are worthy of the great writer herself.

With lighting designer Nick Schlieper, set designer Michael Scott-Mitchell has boldly and effectively used the often awkward width of the Drama Theatre stage to re-create the living room of Highsmith’s final Swiss home. Its small windows, set in thick grey walls, seem designed to keep out both the probability of extreme weather and the possibility of human contact or even the natural beauty of its surrounds. At one end is a modest desk where her portable typewriter sits, waiting for writer’s block to pass. In the fireplace...