Find out how critics have been reacting to Marianne Elliott’s production of Christopher Hampton’s adaptation Choderlos de Laclos’ classic novel.
The Guardian: *** “A moral story at its core, the story builds to the mutual destruction of both its central villains, by which time this stylish production has finally found its dark, menacing heart.”
The Arts Desk: *** “It is notable that while too much time is spent on spectacle, the characters’ ultimate fates feel rushed; as Manville is driven, literally, off stage in a moment of very contemporary cancellation, how one would have loved a moment of pause, a theatrical close-up, to allow a great actress to work her own magic.”
The Stage: *** “Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner are lethally entertaining in cruel games of seduction that lack a sense of purpose.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Manville and Turner are simply superb, their performances deep and thoughtful. They make the characters fallibly human, and Elliott makes the evening sing.”
The Standard: **** “Best. Entrance. Ever. Lesley Manville sweeps in a scarlet hooped dress onto the bare vastness of the Lyttelton stage through a door in a wall of mirrors, beneath a frieze of nudes and a giant, ribbed, candlelit globe. As the Marquise de Merteuil, a widow who breaks hearts and ruins reputations for her own wicked pleasure in 1780s French society, the implacable, raptor-ish Manville absolutely owns this show.”
Time Out: *** “What can I say: it’s a really good production with two sensational leads, of a play that has long stopped being a sexy novelty and now kind of sits as a guilty pleasure. I don’t want to preach, I just question whether Les Liaisons really has enough going for it to justify this sort of lavish revival at our flagship theatre. But it’s here now and it’s undeniably bloody spectacular.”
London Theatre 1: ***** “Les Liaisons Dangereuses is the sort of play that the National Theatre does so well: not just throwing money at it, but having the knack of gathering together the most suitable creatives for the task in hand: people who can shed fresh light on a play, yet always be ‘in tune’ with what the playwright wants.”
City Am: ***** “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.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “Hampton’s tweaked script gives the women slightly more agency, while maintaining the queasiness of the exploitation and continuing cycle of abuse. Valmont and Merteuil operating as a coercive double act brings to mind vile contemporary examples like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Beneath the play’s Wildean bon mots, champagne and glamour, there lurks a dark heart and all-consuming destructive devastation.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/les-liaisons-dangereuses/