By Annette Hinkle
It’s been said that all is fair in love and war. But when the game is a twisted combination of the two, it can be hard to determine exactly who wins in the end — and often everyone loses.
This is the complex conundrum that director Michael Disher has been working through in recent weeks with his cast at Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center as they prepare to take on Christopher Hampton’s play “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” — known more familiarly to American audiences as “Dangerous Liaisons.” The play, which Hampton adapted from the 1782 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, will enjoy a three weekend run at the Cultural Center beginning March 15.
Set among the French aristocracy, the script is a case study for the emotional damage that can be wrought when very clever people with raging hormones have far too much time on their hands. The story centers on the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont — occasional lovers who, when motivated by a combination of lust and revenge, devise a twisted game of conquest that trammels that most fragile of human body parts — the heart.
“Its a revenge scenario,” explains Disher who notes that much of the play’s complex set up is told in exposition. “The Marquise was seeing someone who dumped her because he wanted a younger version. She doesn’t take that lightly.”
That “younger version” is Cécile de Volanges, a pure and naïve 15-year-old who is, in fact, engaged to the Marquise’s former lover, despite the fact she’s in love with her music tutor, Danceny. The Marquise tells the Vicomte, a rakish playboy well-known and much feared by overprotective mothers of young daughters, that she would like him to seduce Cécile, thereby spoiling the goods for her ex-lover. But the Vicomte, who’s always up for a challenge, finds that far too easy and increases the ante by adding the conquest of Madame de Tourvel, a married and virtuous woman he adores, to sweeten the pot.
Quickly, the deal is sealed and the Marquise promises the Vicomte easy access to her bedroom in exchange for proof that he has succeeded in conquering both women. The question is, how many lives will be ruined along the way as the scenario is played out? It’s a puzzle that keeps audiences guessing to the end, and, for the Marquise particularly, has huge ramifications.
“She knows how to use sex as a weapon and presents it in ways to the Vicomte that he can’t refuse,” says Disher in explaining the complexities of the character. “It’s the ultimate double dog dare. What she doesn’t count on, as he proceeds with Madame de Tourvel and falls in love with her, are the feelings of jealousy it stirs up.”
Though it was written in the 18th century, it’s amazing how little has actually changed when it comes not only to human sexual exploits and the manipulation of emotions, but the contradictory messages society sends to promiscuous women as opposed to their male counterparts (one need only look at the recent Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy for a 21st century example).
“These two are pretty much sexual renegades,” explains Disher. “It was easy for the Vicomte to maintain his status and live with the reputation of being a gigolo and a spoiler of the innocent. But with the Marquise, as she clearly states, she had no choice. She’s a woman and forced to live within the confines of the female form and be a victim – women have long been expected to behave a certain way.”
“I said to the cast, imagine how powerful this woman would have been had she been a man?” he adds.
The story has remained so relevant that it has been adapted more than once — not only for the stage, but also for the big screen. John Malkovich and Glenn Close starred in the Academy Award winning 1988 version and remakes have followed — including “Cruel Intentions,” a teenage version set in a modern day high school where mean girls and hormonally charged boys reign — remarkably relevant territory for the tale.
For his production, there will be no 18th century powdered wigs, but rather sleek gowns and art deco inspired design as Disher has decided to set his “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” in 1930s Paris — another era full of frivolous free time and high society. The sporting nature of the script is one that Disher is capitalizing on in the set design as well.
“I saw the whole thing as a chess game with all these different games being played out,” he explains. “I wanted the stage to be square, and it is, with alternating gray and cream floor tiles. Each set piece is a cuboidal and looks like a chess piece. It’s very stylized and stylistic.”
But in the end, the game ends in something of draw and there is uncertainty about how much of the emotion is based on true love and how much is simply strategy. Disher finds the script’s ambiguity reminiscent of “Doubt” a play which he has also directed and one that, similarly, leaves audiences pondering the truth of the situation — in that case whether or not a parish priest has abused a young boy.
“Seth [Hendricks] who plays the Vicomte has asked me, ‘How much of this do I mean and how much do I not?” says Disher. “I said we have to play it different ways. One night it will be one way, the next night it will be another way. You’re dealing with nebulous and ambivalent feelings. That’s tough to play. Actors like to have this stuff pointed out for them.”
“I’m having as much fun with this as I did with ‘Doubt,’” he adds. “These are the kinds of scripts I love. I don’t want something laid out for me. I want something to make me think. This is one that does. It’s sexy, salty, about love and betrayal, the reversal of fortunes and vindictiveness. It’s timeless.”
“It’s always fun when you have a bright cast and I have an extremely intelligent cast here,” says Disher. “They have brought insights and a collective promise. They want to knit themselves into a cohesive whole.”
“It’s nice and kind of rare.”
Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center presents “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at the Levitas Center for the Arts (25 Pond Lane, Southampton). Subsequent performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through April 1. The cast stars Brooke Alexander and Seth Hendricks as the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, Kasia Klimiuk as Madame Tourvel, Julie King as Cécile and Adam Fronc as Danceny. Rounding out the cast is Susan Cincotta, Barbara Jo Howard, Bonnie Grice, Charles Parshley and Vincent Carbone. Tickets are $22 (students $12 with ID). For tickets, call 287-4377 or purchase online at www.scc-arts.org.
Top: The cast of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." (Tom Kochie photo).
