Last Updated on April 3, 2026
Wicked little letters
4.5 out of 5.0 starsGuest Post by Natalie York
The National Theatre’s much-anticipated production of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses coincides with the playwright’s 80th birthday and just over 60 years of writing for the stage. Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 epistolatory classic retains the original’s outrage at a calcified and predatory aristocracy as well as its arch sense of distance. The currency of the central players is not passion or politics, but a competitively dispassionate cruelty, with their own vulnerability revealed only at the end, which is, for them, much too late.
Hampton’s play has always had a starry quality. The original 1985 production of Liaisons Dangereuses turbo-boosted the careers of Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and, in the ingenue role, the young Lesley Manville. There was a subsequent Hollywood movie in 1988 featuring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and a bewildered-looking Keanu Reeves. For sheer star wattage, you can’t get much better than Madonna’s performance of Vogue at the MTV Awards, for which she famously wore Close’s iconic gown from the ’88 movie.
Despite being a commercial and critical success, revivals of Hampton’s most famous play have been pretty thin on the ground- the last major one was 10 years ago at the Donmar Warehouse. It seems propitious, then, that the National should hang its hat on a major new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Drawing on its own luxurious casting with Aiden Turner as the dastardly Vicomte de Valmont and Lesley Manville, who has graduated from ingenue roles and is rightly ensconced as the main attraction, as the magnetic Marquise de Merteuil. It is unsurprising that the bulk of the 2-month run is sold out.
The National is doubling down on the trend set by the hit production of ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’- showy casting coupled with bold, Instagram-friendly design. The theatre’s gift shop is stocked with ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ branded fans, oversized silk hair bows and ruffled eye masks, selling a familiarly bombastic vision to a Gen Z audience raised on Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.
This cabaret (by way of Coco de Mer) inflected aesthetic pervades the stage where the 18th century trappings of the original are discarded in favour of a chaotically unfocussed 19th century look- it’s a bit ‘Moulin Rouge’. This was actually mostly successful in conveying a sort of uncertainty to the space the characters were navigating. The inconsistency of costume and environment creates a dreamlike quality. However, some of Hampton’s and indeed de Laclos’ specificity and context is lost, which is a shame.
Director Marianne Elliott does strong work shuttling the characters through the knotty emotional cycles of desire, disgust and recrimination. There are a few strange directorial choices- I could not work out why the female ensemble were required to wear mesh bubbles over their heads, and some of the ensemble work was little more than fancy scenery pushing. This is a shame as the ensemble is otherwise used effectively with movement that is fluid and propulsive, tipping over into extended periods of dance. These episodes are largely used to illustrate the character’s inner motivations, generally so different from what they will admit to each other. There is beauty and emotional clarity here as well as some very fine dancing. The core cast join in ably- you can see Aiden Turner’s background in competitive ballroom dancing both here and in the climactic fight scene.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, of course, indestructible. It remains a very fine piece of work that has aged with ease. Marquise de Merteuil’s central speech (‘I was born to dominate your sex and avenge my own’) has often been held up as a feminist battle cry, but this deeply feminist work’s true allure comes in its unflinching depiction of female characters as complex, morally corruptible and fundamentally human. Merteuil claims to seek revenge for her sex in an unfair world. The world, as Hampton portrays it, is stacked so ludicrously high against women. But this is no David and Goliath story, and there are no heroes. Her ultimate vengeance is to be more brutal than the brutes that surround her. Lesley Manville is entirely compelling in this role, weary of the precarious safety she has built herself but terrified of letting it go.
Aiden Turner plays Valmont with a lupine, rangy physicality. As with Manville, there is an exhaustion to his character that seems to have descended long before the events of the play begin. He has all the trappings of an ageing lothario, humanised by a shambolic sense of humour and child-like devotion to Manville. Monica Barbaro brings a wary sorrowfulness to the role of Madame de Tourvel. Hannah van der Westhuyen plays Cecile de Volanges (Lesley Manville’s role in 1985) with wide-eyed enthusiasm and just a little menace.
All told, this is a confident and properly enjoyable production of one of the great plays of the late 20th century. It may be tricky to secure a ticket at this stage (although you should try), but it will doubtless run and run as part of the NT Live series. I very much look forward to Hannah van der Westhuyen’s turn as the Marquise de Merteuil in a few years’ time.
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Lyttelton Theatre,
National Theatre,
South Bank,
London SE1 9PX
Les Liaisons Dangereuses runs from 1 April 2026 to 6 June 2026 and will also be available to watch in cinemas across the country and globe from 25 June 2026 with National Theatre Live.
Looking for something different? We recommend John Proctor is the Villain, currently showing at the Royal Court Theatre
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