THEATRE: Digby Ricci
‘I DECIDED to write a work that should depart from the=20 trodden path, make a stir, and reverberate on this earth=20 after my demise,” Pierre-Ambroise-Fran=8Dois Choderlos de=20 Laclos famously declared of his chilling, profound=20 epistolary novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, but even this=20 truly prophetic and insightful author could never have=20 predicted the extraordinary ”reverberations” of his=20 masterpiece after his demise.
The adaptations are almost dizzyingly numerous and=20 popular: in 1959, Roger Vadim offered a ”daring”=20 modernisation; Christopher Hampton’s constantly revived=20 stage adaptation is trumpeted as the Royal Shakespeare=20 Company’s biggest hit of the Eighties and Nineties; it=20 was transformed into Stephen Frears’ over-acclaimed film,=20 and, at about the time that Frears’ film was packing in=20 titillated audiences, Milos Forman released his Valmont;=20 an opera is apparently planned.
In the midst of such an embarrassment of riches, it may=20 seem churlish to assert that I have yet to see an=20 entirely satisfactory version, but this is, in fact, the=20 case. I detested John Malkovich’s screaming-queen=20 depiction of Valmont — all moues, simpers and sidelong=20 stares — in Frears’ film, and Glenn Close’s Marquise de=20 Merteuil had all the terrifying calculation and cruelty=20 required for the role, but failed to capture the=20
In Forman’s film, Colin Firth’s Valmont was dazzlingly=20 handsome and authentically vicious, but too youthful to=20 be altogether convincing as Laclos’s stylish Lucifer,=20 and, in any case, he and Annette Bening, whose Marquise=20 was an effectively cold-eyed seductress with a ringing,=20 contemptuous laugh, were hobbled by Jean-Claude=20 Carriere’s soggy script. So, for me, the waiting=20 continues …
Hampton’s dramatisation has its limitations too. It does=20 not succeed in capturing both the allure of its=20 diabolical manipulators and the alienating magnitude of=20 their sins. Laclos’s novel was enormously influenced by=20 Samuel Richardson’s great Clarissa — Valmont and the=20 Marquise de Merteuil are both variants of Richardson’s=20 gifted, demonic nihilist, Lovelace, and, in a superb New=20 Criterion article on Laclos, Renee Winegarten rightly=20 described the self-sacrificing yet ardent Mme de Tourvel=20 as ”Richardson’s Clarissa, but without the odour of=20 sanctity”. Like Clarissa, Les Liaisons Dangereuses=20 expresses genuine horror at the inhumanity of the=20 complex, seductive intriguers it depicts. The whiff of=20 sulphur always taints the world of powder, hoopskirts and=20
Hampton delights too twinklingly in the wit and cunning=20 of his evil protagonists, and, although his version does=20 include the finest, darkest eloquence of Laclos’s=20 characters (the Marquise de Merteuil’s remarkable Letter=20 81 is rightly spotlit), it also includes too many=20 examples of Hampton’s own putative epigrams. Listening to=20 an audience chortling over clumsy playing with words like=20 ”come” and ”appetite”, one is wearied rather than=20 charmed, and George S Kaufman’s comment about ”single=20 entendres” does leap to mind.
The leading players in the latest RSC presentation at the=20 Johannesburg Civic Theatre do fall into the trap of=20 excessively knowing portrayals, at least in the=20 beginning. Ken Bones’ Vicomte de Valmont has the right=20 saturnine appearance, but his flamboyant gesticulating –=20 outflung arms, ostentatious bows, winking asides –=20 renders him more roguish than evil.=20
At least, this is the case until Valmont succeeds in=20 seducing Mme de Tourvel. Then, Bones’ performance takes=20 on the appropriate subtlety and complexity. He is ”pained=20 and uncharacteristically tender” (as Hampton specifies)=20 in his encounters with her; his eventual rejection of her=20 (”It’s beyond my control!”) is played with the perfect=20 combination of smugness and cold spite; and the muted=20 repentance of his death scene is very moving.
As the Marquise de Merteuil, Anna Carteret has a=20 throatily enticing voice reminiscent of that of Joan=20 Greenwood, and a commanding presence even more pleasingly=20 reminiscent of that of Margaret Leighton, but she too=20 errs on the side of over-explicitness, and is too=20 actressy at times. I enjoyed her swirling prowl — she=20 whisks her hoopskirts about as if they were a deadly=20 serpent’s tail — but she triumphed only in the second=20 half. I’m sorry that she chose to screech the Marquise’s=20 declaration of war, but, taken all in all, this is an=20 impressive, truthful performance.
It is equalled by Paula Stockbridge’s Mme de Tourvel.=20 Stockbridge cannot eliminate memories of Michelle=20 Pfeiffer or indeed of the extraordinary, sombre-eyed Meg=20 Tilly in Valmont, but she does give Mme de Tourvel’s=20 virtue a strength and assurance that make her collapse=20 into hysterical anguish all the more shocking and=20
Antonia Pemberton is a very touching Madame de Rosemonde;=20 Diana Berriman captures both the silliness and the=20 worldliness of Madame de Volanges; Julien Ball is a=20 charmingly na=F9ve Danceny. Only Jane Arden’s Cecile, a St=20 Trinian’s tomboy turned decadent, over-acts shamelessly.
The production is a miracle of elegance and economy. The=20 set features slatted screens that cast effectively film- noirish shadows, a towering chest of drawers that spills=20 a profusion of garments and jewels, graceful chaises=20 longues that can be swiftly transformed into rumpled=20 beds. The limited colour range of the very authentic=20 costumes — from white through cream to gold — also=20 makes for restrained beauty. The concentration on=20 stylishness rather than opulence is superbly right, for=20 the elegance that conceals savagery is what Laclos’s=20 original is all about. This is a Hogarthean tale in=20 Watteau garb.
The music, which runs the gamut from delicate harpsichord=20 strains to discords suggestive of the tocsin, also could=20 not be bettered. The duel was magnificently=20 choreographed: stripped of swashbuckling flourishes, and=20 convincingly brutal. The sudden fall of a vast red=20 streamer to signal the work’s sanguinary conclusion was a=20 theatrical coup. The actual production deserves its=20 legendary status. Not a moment is wasted.
Yet, one must register a twinge of disappointment.=20 Perhaps the RSC is a victim of its own legend. One thinks=20 of Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh and other=20 awe-inspiring luminaries and, perhaps unjustly, feels=20 that this highly professional, often exciting cast lacks=20 that something extra that makes for unforgettable=20
Les Liaisons Dangereuses runs at the Civic Theatre in=20 Johannesburg until April 29