Les liaisons dangereuses

With top-notch performers, Arnaud Denis admirably adapts Choderlos de Laclos's epistolary novel, at the heart of an alloy uniting beauty and cruelty.

"We will, if inspiration allows, approach this novel as a verbal opera." explains director Arnaud Denis. A successful gamble! Praised by critics and audiences alike, and subtly adapted by quoting here and there from the Marquis de Sade, Molière and Racine, this inspired version plays admirably with the contrasts between the beauty of its aesthetic setting and the despicable cruelty that crushes human beings. Particularly women, subject to the will of the men who control them. If Merteuil becomes formidable, it's to avoid becoming a victim... The play sharply and vividly raises the question of consent, of relationships of domination, which today is still imbued with perversity.

In shimmering period costumes, under the delicate make-up, the monstrous is expressed with uncommon force, while preserving an elegance of every moment. Delphine Depardieu (Merteuil) and Valentin de Carbonnières (Valmont) marvelously embody the manipulative couple.