Patricia Highsmith didn’t write plays. Fortunately, David Cale does write them, and his new one, “Harry Clarke,” received its world premiere Tuesday at Off Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. As the character Harry Clarke tells us early in this one-person thriller starring Billy Crudup, “I don’t understand why anyone would read reviews. Why would you want to know what’s going to happen?”
He has a point. It’s best not to know too much about “Harry Clarke” before seeing it, just as you wouldn’t want to know much about Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” before reading them.
What we are told in the first few minutes of the play can be revealed here.