Merteuil is a brutal and unsympathetic character, yet Douglas manages to reveal, in small glimpses, the pain and desperation that underlies her savagery.ДЄ well-suited match to DouglasвЂ™ Merteuil is the accomplished Brent Harris as Vicomte de Valmont. Sweetly gaining their confidences, she guides them like hapless marionettes to their downfall, them thanking her all the way. She commands the men in her midst, purring seductively or bitingly chastising them to achieve her whims and desires. Striking in gorgeous period gowns by Costume Designer Fabio Toblini, Douglas embodies the intelligent, if immoral, Merteuil. All we can achieve by denouncing you is to enhance your prestige.вЂќДouglas, known to many for her successful career on screens big and small, is a powerful force on the stage. Men, on the other hand, вЂњcan ruin us whenever the fancy takes you. She explains to Valmont that a woman of her timeвЂ™s primary source of power is the promise of, the withholding of, or the consent to the act of sex. Indeed, the Marquise de Merteuil, played by the exquisite Suzzanne Douglas, has made a study of the intersections between power and gender. I am intrigued by the dynamics of power, gender, manipulation and the contrast between the public identity and the private self.вЂќ Although the setting is turn of the 18th century, Les Liaisons Dangereuses explores themes that are still incredibly relevant today. Sharif, who directed the production, notes, вЂњThis is a sleek, sexy show. As Center Stage Associate Artistic Director Hana S. The play, written by Christopher Hampton, is based on the 1782 epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos, but is surprisingly timely in many ways. As a means of surpassing his own high-water mark for salacious cruelty, he aims to seduce La PrГ©sidente de Tourvel, a happily married woman renowned for her virtue. The second is a goal Valmont has set for himself. It is an act designed to cause great embarrassment to the man, which will, incidentally, be the ruin of the innocent girl. One is a challenge from Merteuil to Valmont: the deflowering of Cecile Volanges (Noelle Franco), a young virgin fresh from the convent, who is engaged to a man Merteuil feels has wronged her. There are two main conquests around which Liaisons is centered. Their romantic relationship over, their association revolves around a sadistic game in which they issue each other lascivious challenges, making sport of the lives of people who interest or annoy them.

The aristocrats in question, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, are former lovers. The cast of вЂDangerous Liaisons.вЂ™ Photo by Richard Anderson.

Such is the backdrop of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (вЂњ LiaisonsвЂќ), the daring first production in Center StageвЂ™s 2016/2017 theatrical season. With no work to do or real obstacles to overcome, a pair of trГЁs riche sociopaths entertain themselves with the seduction, manipulation and ruination of others. ItвЂ™s the eve of the French Revolution and the crГЁme of the French aristocracy вЂ“ the вЂњoriginal one percentвЂќ so aptly described by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah in his program note вЂ“ are bored. вЂњLove and revenge, two of your favorites.вЂќ

Dangerous liaisons broadway review