Best known to many as 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons, put on film by Stephen Frears, (with a lascivious John Malkovich, powerhouse Glenn Close and fragile Michelle Pfieffer), Christopher Hampton’s peerless adaptation won an Oscar for its sparkling dialogue.
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| Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville. Photo by Sarah Lee. |
Its setting: high regency, pre-revolutionary Paris; barbed by a pair of quixotic plotters. Hampton’s writing, in whatever medium, always deals with the conflict between logic and doomed romanticism (he gloriously adapted Ian McEwan’s modern classic Atonement for the screen in 2007, for director Joe Wright).
First performed by the RSC in Stratford in 1985, directed by the prolific, dear departed Howard Davis, (also starring a 29 year-old Lesley Manville, then playing the role of an even younger Cecile), a whole panoply of actors, including a then almost unknown Alan Rickman (certainly in America, until it transferred to Broadway in 1986), along with, over the decades: Lindsay Duncan, Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Liev Scheiber, Dominic West, Laura Linney and latest, forthcoming Professor McGonagall: Janet McTeer.
Now, a new production arrives at the National for the very first time, on its most traditional, proscenium stage, the Lyttleton. The team assembled couldn’t be of a higher calibre. Director Marianne Elliott, is familiar with this auditorium: her stratospherically staged, eye-wateringly starry 2017 production of a seminal, two-part, near 8-hour leviathan, Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, (a career best performance from a TONY-winning Andrew Garfield) was exceptional in both its vital importance and awe-inspiring scale and spectacle; one of the most miraculously memorable theatrical experiences of the last century, and with NT Live, I wasn’t even in the room.
This is almost as starry, although my eyes remained decidedly dry. Manville, here plays grandiose schemer Madame de Merteuil, dripping in femme fatale red; special mention must go to Natalie Roar’s resplendent costumes. Manville plays Merteuil with dismissively acerbic acidity. Never has the phrase ‘mechanical fashion’ to remark on the diminishing quality of Valmont’s sexual escapades, broken up a climactic monologue with such venom. No photography, please; otherwise, that fourth wall might be shattered so easily!
Early on, she remarks patronisingly upon her subjects as opportunistic victims: ‘She has no character and no morals – she’s altogether delicious.’
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| Photo by Sarah Lee. |
Rosanna Vize’s terrific set is as deceptively intricate as its antagonists: mirrors allow these ultimately vulnerable monsters to see their unconscionable actions reflected back on themselves. Even the fluidity of the scene changes means the ensemble requires expert timing to manoeuvre and reassemble various pieces of the set. But, in a narrative all about being conspiratorial, this also helps tell the story: Aidan Turner’s wonderfully physical, louche Valmont hides, climbs and eavesdrops, as secrets are revealed in their quietly imploding construction.
Many critics in the national press have put a dampener on Turner’s portrayal, stating that he’s perhaps not as oily as Malkovich in the role, but who is? Turner’s a brilliant revelation as a deeply sinewy Valmont, timing him to perfection, by turns ruthless and then - rare for this piece – hugely sympathetic too. If certain members of the audience were thrilled at seeing Turner, this certainly isn’t Poldark: Live!, he more than matches Manville and I’ve never seen him play anything like this. Oliviers may await him, if eligibility aligns, which it sadly won’t.
Veteran stalwart Gabrielle Drake brings a welcome dose of subtle comedy to Madame De Rosemond, in vivid purple, reminding me a little of Lady Bracknell.
New Yorker Monica Barbaro’s faultless English accent, helps adopt a measured puritanism (hence the white silk dress) to her studied, intelligently judged characterisation of Madame De Tourvel, possibly the most difficult role to play, all the more elegantly impressive, as its Barbaro’s stage debut.
The astounding use of ultra-dramatic dance and heightened string score by Jasmin Kent Rodgman hits you like a magnetic sucker-punch right as the elegant production opens, the Lyttleton deploying its camera-shutter screen, as the ensemble twirl and glide in sharp synchronicity, making particularly striking use of those all-important poison-pen letters.
There’s occasional dead space in the wide expanse of the Lyttleton. It’s quite literally my favourite theatre stage in the world, but perhaps on the back row of the stalls, some of the intimacy, and by extension, emotionality encapsulated within it, gets a bit lost. This play is somewhat of a chamber piece, perhaps more suited to the NT’s smallest space, The Dorfman, instead? Although of course, with this star casting, there’d have to be ticketing done by ballot again.
Never lacking in ambition, or the visual brio of its own opulence, occasional pacing issues and the transference of supposedly moving its audience to feel sorry for Merteuil, here smacks a little hollow, but the universal excellence of a entire company at the very pinnacle of their powers, ensure this remains a true classic, fully deserving of being richly reinterpreted across the mediums, again and again.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Les Liaisons Dangereuses runs at The National Theatre until Saturday 6th June 2026. For tickets and more information visit https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/les-liaisons-dangereuses/
The play will be streamed into cinemas through NT Live from 25th June 2026. Visit https://www.ntlive.com/plays/les-liaisons-dangereuses/ for further information.
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| Photo by Sarah Lee. |
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