Cast

Synopsis

“…bristles with tart, funny and exquisitely moulded lines… supple and addictive contemporary playwriting at its very best.”

The plot focuses on the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, rivals who use sex as a weapon of humiliation and degradation, all the while enjoying their cruel games.

A tale of seduction set in France among aristocrats before the French revolution, this is classic drama for exploring decadent sexuality, morals, and manipulation played as the ultimate game, with tragic results.

Directors Notes

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge made the novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial in European literature. The ‘stir’ it created has lasted to this day. The novel has been adapted for stage and many successful films, not least the 1988 film starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer.

This Olivier award winning play is set among the decadent ruling class of pre-revolutionary France, where men have almost all the power.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses shocks because, for the first half of the play there is plenty of naughty humour but it then catches us off-guard as its machinations darken and its comedy becomes tragedy.

The prime movers, and former lovers, the playboy Vicomte Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game – a game which they must win.

The play is complicated by the fact that is has eighteen scenes in six different locations, so I decided that the set and props needed to be simple using lighting and music to suggest the changes of location. I have been lucky once again to have a splendid backstage team who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this work. Without this team we would have no play and I am grateful to all of them. We have all enjoyed the rehearsals and the actors have worked hard to make this drama come to life.