Sin and perfidy on display

Laclos’s witty exposé of the French aristocracy still appeals to audiences today, Ron Cerebona writes

When Pierre Choderlos de Laclos published his epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1782, the French revolution was only a few years away. What he was doing, says Duncan Driver, director of Christopher Hampton’s stage adaptation of the work, was “exposing the decadence and hypocrisy of the French ruling class”.

And showing why so many of its members would soon be destined for the guillotine. “It’s about the death of the French aristocracy: the ruling class falling down from a great height through its own decadence and sinfulness.” In the play, the Vicomte de Valmont (played by Duncan Ley) and the Marquise de Merteuil (Hannah Ley), ex-lovers, amuse themselves with various cruel schemes, toying with people as though they are chess pieces. “They’re trying to one-up each other in terms of who they’re trying to ruin,” Driver says.

Valmont sets himself a challenge: he wants to make the virtuous Madam de Tourvel (Helen McFarlane) fall in love with him. But this is no easy task, for she is a devout, chaste woman. If Valmont can accomplish this, it will add to his prestige.

Meanwhile, Merteuil wants to corrupt the naive, convent-educated Cecile de Volanges (Lexi Sekuless), because she felt insulted by a man who wants to marry the girl.

"Merteuil wants her 'ruined', so she turns to Valmont to seduce her." But all these devious plans just might, for once, go awry for the perfidious pair.

Driver says that Valmont is, for all his hateful doings, "still very likeable: he's like one of those villains you love to hate".

He and Merteuil are almost admirable, in a strange way, he says, like Shakespeare's Richard III for most of that play.

Driver says he doesn't have the budget, or the inclination, to present a very opulent setting in this production.

"I've gone for something more conceptual ... I don't want the staging to be elaborate. I'd prefer the suggestion of opulence, a general aesthetic that embraces the artificiality of theatre."

He says he tends to think over-elaborate settings distract audiences from the acting; a play like Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, he says, like Shakespeare: what's important is what the characters say to each other.

"The starker the set, the more people are able to concentrate on the words."

Despite its very specific time and place, Laclos's story has proved remarkably resilient. It's had stage, opera and film versions that remain faithful to the original settings but others that have reset it in France in the 1950s, 18th-century Korea, and even among 20th-century pre-school New York teenagers, in Cruel Intentions (1999). The appeal of Les Liaisons Dangereuses has endured, whether because of the human fascination with villainy, or because we're in an age just as cynical as that of Laclos, if not more so.

• Les Liaisons Dangereuses is on at Theatre 3, Repertory Lane, off Ellery Crescent, Acton, as follows: preview September 10 at 8pm, then September 11 to October 3, Thursday to Saturday at 8pm, with 2pm matinees on September 19 and 26 and October 3, and 5pm twilight shows on September 20 and 27. Tickets: Full price $25, Concession/Preview/Matinee/Twilight $27, Members $25. Online bookings: www.canberrarep.org.au. Phone bookings: 6257 1950, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Tickets also available at the door one hour before scheduled performances.