“perfections are chimerical and exist only in… imagination.” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782)
Spoiler-free review:
Rating out of 10: (Exceeding) 10, noteworthy only because until recently I knew very little in the way of plays as opposed to musicals and other forms of theatre, and because the 1988 movie and the film Valmont, whilst I would never say they are so self-serious, the characters’ witticisms are lost on the audience, however, they are most definitely a tragedy where the book and source material is a the genre label indincates a ‘libertine’ novel, so, like Juliette by de Sade still an active and pointed thinking piece of literature in which no character is in any realm of ‘morally correct.’ Dangerous Liaisons, the play is best described by the tag ‘angst, fluff and smut’ and a dark comedy romance where not even Valmont’s charm or Merteuil’s wit can spare them or anyone else from the events of 1793 and 1794 and not a single character exits the play unscathed.
Likes: Costume, set design, that Merteuil is still given her cold, calculating wit, but Valmont is elevated from simply Merteuil’s favourite ‘plaything’ to the funniest character as performed in the play, in large part to the credit of the actor, as Valmont, moreso than Merteuil is far more difficult to like as a character unless he is, witty and a bit ironic, tormented or tragic as played in 1988 and cruel intentions.
Critiques: I understand it is a two-hour play. It is a truth universally acknowledged by writers that all stories benefit from character and world-building.
Spoiler review:
“Born to avenge my sex and dominate yours.” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782)
“You accuse her of being ill-dressed. I agree. Clothes don’t become her. Everything that hides her, disfigures. It is in the freedom of disdress that she is truly ravishing.” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782)
Les Liaisons dangereuses, also known as Liaisons Dangereuses or in English, Dangerous Connections or Dangerous Liaisons, is a 1782 epistolary French libertine novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos recounting the exploits and competition between the amoral (or immoral, depending on your perspective) ex-lovers, the Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont, a charming rogue who will do a good many things, only as many as he can get away with and not be condemned in social circles though… which as a french Vicomte in the 18th century it turns out is quite a lot provided he always outwardly performs the notion of virtue and the widow the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil, who knows her ‘vice’ just as well as Valmont but goes undetected as only a widow can aided by the fact with her foresight she schemes well in advance and performs more than adequate decorum as upheld by the status quo as a Marquise.
The earliest English translation of Dangerous Liaisons was written as early as 1812, and as with Justine by de Sade and its accompanying tome, Juliette is considered one of the earliest French novels of literary significance as well as the earliest works in French brave enough to dabble in proto-feminism. The play Les Liaisons dangereuses was written in 1985 by English playwright Cristopher Hampton, and that same script was used, although with much tonal reworking, in 1988, directed by Stephen Frears. There is also the underappreciated 1989 film starring Colin Firth as the Vicomte, Valmont and the adaptation of an adaptation based primarily on the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions (1999), in which all the plot beats and overarching character motivations are present, but context, time, and place change the tone and plot quite a lot.
In a way, it is disheartening how timeless Dangerous Liaisons and Sade’s Juliette are, even now. Perhaps that is why we keep readapting them and interrogating them. Not without reason or for lack of evidence, as indeed, the French Revolution warrants in its own and many factors caused it. Still, through Merteuil and Valmont, the audience is made to understand that performing decorum, or goodness, if you will, does not make one a good person. That nothing is as simple as it appears, and as demonstrated through Tourvel and Valmont, many times. Love does not, in fact, win over everyone, and for Merteuil, the odds stacked against her as they are and a product of nurture and nature as we all are. Many times, love is not enough, or it is too little too late.
“Have you forgotten that love, like medicine, is simply the art of aiding nature?” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782)
“Your orders are charming; your manner of giving them still more delightful; you would make tyranny itself adored.” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782)
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