The Panel in Context: An Introduction to The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Abstract

This introduction provides a context for the transcript of the panel discussion on The Faction’s production of The Talented Mr. Ripley that took place at London’s New Diorama Theatre in February 2015.1 The event was organized jointly by The Faction and Caroline Bainbridge and Candida Yates, Directors of the Media and Inner World research network. The network was first set up and funded by the AHRC in 2009 with the aim to create a dialogue between academics, media practitioners and creative and psychoanalysts and psychotherapists to explore the role of emotion and unconscious processes in the spheres of both practice and representation within media and culture. Caroline Bainbridge and I have worked with The Faction on a number of occasions, and, in the case of The Talented Mr. Ripley, we also worked with the cast in rehearsals as consultants. This involved focusing on the psychoanalytic themes of the text whilst also using a process consultancy method to explore the relational and affective themes that emerged within rehearsals themselves.