An editor from a New York publishing house arrives in Switzerland to convince the reclusive and notoriously difficult Patricia Highsmith to write another Tom Ripley novel. That intriguing premise is the subject of Joanna Murray-Smith’s “Switzerland,” which opened Thursday at Off Broadway’s 59E59 Theater under the auspices of the Hudson Stage Company. The play was first performed in 2014 at the Sydney Theatre Company.
For the first few minutes of “Switzerland,” you might be reminded of the recent Broadway hit “The Lifespan of a Fact,” based on a real-life incident regarding a persnickety fact-checker and a recalcitrant writer who harbors an odd notion of what constitutes nonfiction.