NT LIVE: LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

Hampton turns the letters of the novel into a series of remarkable dialogues, often in private interior spaces. We watch as Merteuil (Manville) and Valmont (Turner) plot and scheme, their planned destruction of these young women a kind of psychological foreplay. For him, it is the act of consumption, the knowledge that he can have and devour any woman he pleases. Valmont is a hunter, voracious in his appetite, as aroused by the act of pursuit as the acquisition of his target, and all the more enthused if the pursuit brings chaos in its wake. For Merteuil, it is that destruction that drives her, weaponising the few assets that she has as a woman in a patriarchal system to both preserve her power and remove opposition, her targets are often promise revenge against those that have slighted or underestimated her. Her great act of defiance is to pursue sexual pleasure in the same manner as a man, albeit in the shadows rather than in the open. This is her connection with Valmont, what binds the two together. They see in one another their mirror and relish in the reflection, though for her, there bubbles something deeper, a lust for Valmont that matches his for her, but may also hide a stronger need for him, the only man who can truly match her.

In Cécile (Hannah van der Westhuysen, TV's 'The Sandman') and Madame de Tourvel (Barbaro), they find targets that are as ideological as they are desirable. Having just emerged from a convent, Cécile has a virginal purity, an untouched jewel desirable as an object for marriage. She's almost too easy a task for Valmont, but for Merteuil, it's the satisfaction of seeing that virtue shattered, of drawing Cécile towards her inevitable corruption. For Valmont, Tourvel is the greater challenge, both married and piously religious. To woo and win her would be to deem her faith inconsequential to sexual desire and his conquest of her all the more satisfying. The rules of society and the rules of religion are at stake here, but the height of those stakes ultimately present dangers that neither party expects. It would be glib to say that matters of the heart are their undoing (and 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' is never glib), but the tragedy is more that, in the end, they are all human beings driven by a need for self-preservation and protection, and when all of them are backed against a wall, they'll do whatever they can to protect themselves.

The human drama here is intricate and carefully constructed, so that much of the spectacle of 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' comes from watching great actors sink their teeth into the text and, consequently, one another. What's often thrilling about this production is how easily the play can accommodate for our contemporary undertaking of gender and sexual politics. Much of the writing (especially Merteuil's magnificent monologues) still resonate with the challenges of women stuck within a patriarchal system, but Valmont's pursuit of both Cécile and Tourvel raises questions of consent, agency and abuse, all things that feel pulled from the text rather than imposed upon it. It's the tricky thing when your protagonists also often act reprehensibly, but both Manville and Turner balance their villainy with a vulnerability, and both van der Westhuysen and Barbaro capture the intense confusion and emotional cost of their mistreatment.

The problem is that Elliot surrounds these relationships with too much additional theatricality. Rosanna Vize's set leaves the stage of the Lyttelton Theatre mostly bare, with mirrored walls and door defining the three sides of the stage. Disconnected set walls are brought in and out, as if part of a film set, but for the most part, the mirrors make the stage feel cavernous, often swallowing the action. Elliot also transitions between scenes with elaborate dance sequences choreographed by Tom Jackson Greaves, but while some of these are thrilling to watch (especially those involving Barbaro), they mostly end up turning subtext into text, communicating visually what the dramatic action has already told us. This also means that the ensemble is substantial, with bodies often lurking around the edges of these intimate spaces. This could add an interesting texture, such as the idea that these characters are never as private as they think with servants always around, but Hampton's text doesn't support this, and often times (such as a stage populated by dark sinister men during Valmont's seduction of Cécile), their presence feels more like the production is gilding the lily. These sequence also disrupt the rhythm of the play and break the tension, making an already long play feel even longer.

It's the shattering of the tension that causes the greater issue here, as the entrapment of first the victims and then the perpetrators never builds to the claustrophobia the text asks for. It also means that, though all four leads are doing strong work. their energy isn't given necessary points of focus. They're all dwarfed by a large stage and a large ensemble, stripping the play of its pointed social commentary. The sense is that of throwing a bunch of big theatrical ideas at a play to make it work without realising that the play was working to begin with. This then becomes a problem for the National Theatre Live capture. While the camera is able to bring us in during the intimate dialogue scenes, it struggles with the large ensemble moments, unable to capture the size of the stage without losing the actors within the space and within the ensemble, making it difficult to track them through the action. The final moments are amongst the most difficult, the intense drama rendered as operatic melodrama that distances us rather than enveloping us.

For those unfamiliar with the play, this National Theatre Live screening of the recent revival does offer an exciting opportunity to see the text in action. Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' is still a tremendous theatrical landmark and a play that, like its source novel, still finds contemporary resonances with the sexual power games the genders can play against one another. It's just a pity that this production from the National Theatre aims for often empty spectacle over dramaturgical nuance, making this a production of 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' that impresses at a distance rather than shattering itself into you.