Les Liaisons Dangereuses | National Theatre | ★★★★★
“Love is something you use, not something you fall into like quicksand.” Such is the parable of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the stage adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 epistolary novel, in which sex is power. This is 18th century Paris after all, and love – or more aptly succumbing to it – can make one physically sick, as some of the characters in this ill-fated play find out.
At Marianne Elliott’s adaptation at the National Theatre, Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, The Crown) and Aiden Turner (Poldark stud) masterfully step into the shoes of the grande dame and seigneur of this world, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, former lovers who now amuse themselves by competing to seduce others. The harder the conquest (i.e. more virtuous the victim), the better.
Manville’s Marquise is regal, in both dress and demeanour, commanding the stage as she uses her charms to commandeer the play’s events, whether that be convincing young Cecille that infidelity is just the way of the world, or sermonising on women’s ultimate futility beyond their beauty: “Vanity and happiness are incompatible”. Laclos’s world is a shallow one – aptly reflected in Rosanna Vive’s set design, in which the National’s expansive stage is hedged in by mirrors, above which hang frescoes of naked women draped in pearls and silks.
Vive’s resistance to fill the stage with rugs and chandeliers, as is typical for plays of the type, pays off. Instead, the vastness of the space allows for Natalie Roar’s brilliant costuming, resplendent with jewelled lapels and pleated silk, to shine. It has an element of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights about it, with full, period gowns contrasted with touches of BDSM; think chokers, a pale pink strapped corset and long black gloves, their PVC sheen detectable only in certain lights. Dance sequences used to stitch together scenes add a Bridgerton-esque flavour too, sexual tension included.
Four centuries later, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is still scandalous
Meanwhile, Turner makes for a devilish accomplice, or rival, for Manville, his Irish cadence lending him an effortless charm that makes it easy to see how he navigates society so deftly. Not to mention he’s also, how else to put it, mega hot and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the audience finding it hard to focus on much else. Switching seamlessly between Wildean dandy and lovesick puppy, Turner manipulates his prey to best sedate them. “All I wantewilded was to deserve you,” he cries to one of his fawns – a ploy which will be familiar to many modern victims of the 21st century fuckboy.
Though Les Liaisons Dangereuses ends up much darker than modern dating foibles. It was scandalous in the 1700s – Marie Antoinette had her copy made with a blank cover – and it still manages to shock now. Scenes between the Vicomte and ingénue Cecille in particular make for uncomfortable viewing, as the Vicomte’s role as lovable rogue quickly unravels, and the far more insidious side of his and the Marquise’s gameplay are exposed. The line between seduction and abuse is firmly crossed, before the whole episode is ominously laughed off.
It is this darkness that makes the play a triumph. Unlike Wilde’s comedies where ennui is defensible, a frivolous vice with frivolous consequences, here it is destructive. As Turner shouts out repeatedly into the void, “it’s the way of the world, it’s beyond my control”, we know not to believe him. The quicksand has come, gobbling up the hollowness of this world, and the audience must watch.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses plays at the National Theatre until 6 June 2026
#Aiden #Turner #sexier #Poldark