Reviews round-up: Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ at the Donmar Warehouse

A reviews round-up for Josie Rourke’s production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ at the Donmar Warehouse.

The Donmar’s Artistic Director, Josie Rourke directs a revival production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ – Christopher Hampton’s award winning adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 scandalising novel of sex, intrigue and betrayal in pre-revolutionary France.

For Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ thirty year revival, Josie Rourke has drawn together a stellar cast including Elaine Cassidy as Madame de Tourvel, Janet McTeer as Marquise de Merteuil and Dominic West as Vicomte de Valmon, however it’s McTeer who steals the show with her embodiment of glacial elegance.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ will be screened on 28 January 2016 by NT Live.

The reviews round-up includes The Guardian, The Observer, The Telegraph, Time Out, Evening Standard and The Stage.

Average Critics Rating

★★★★

REVIEWS ROUND-UP

The Guardian

★★★★

‘Josie Rourke directs a fine revival of Christopher Hampton’s adaptation, where two jealousy-fuelled aristocrats stumble into the confusions of true love. A drama full of symmetry, sex and style.

West comes brilliantly into his own in Valmont’s appalled realisation that, although a practised seducer, he is not immune to passion. Janet McTeer captures superbly the sense of a damaged soul.
Elaine Cassidy’s scene where she collapses in Valmont’s arms with chattering teeth and near-epileptic convulsions is horrifying to witness.’

The Observer

★★★★

‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses is one of the best stage adaptations ever written. McTeer revels in the role of the cruel Marquise in Josie Rourke’s staging, opposite Dominic West’s curiously languid partner-in-crime.
Elaine Cassidy blanches beautifully as Valmont’s comeuppance. Una Stubbs emits resignation with the flick of an eye.’

The Daily Telegraph

★★★★

‘Heady and intoxicating. McTeer is the embodiment of glacial elegance’
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Time Out

★★★★

‘Rourke, is a director who knows how to give audiences a fun night: her production is less self-consciously sexy than the film, but much more fun, zipping along with Wildean. West is great as Valmont, a booming, lusty bounder with a boyish charm: he may be a massive sex pest, but he’s an incredibly likeable one. However the show really belongs to Janet McTeer: she is sensational as Merteuil, a mix of goggle-eyed malevolence, cruel amusement, towering intellect, seething boredom and harsh, stark sex appeal.’
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Evening Standard

★★★★★

‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses is theatre at its most seductive and sinister.
Dominic West proves superb and Janet McTeer makes a triumphant return to the West End in this revival of Christopher Hampton’s witty play.’

The Stage

★★★★

‘Josie Rourke has chosen to focus on the slipperiness of time. There is an edginess, a tension as we observe a moment that will soon be over but is simultaneously real as long as it has an audience. A sumptuously dressed, imaginative anniversary production of Christopher Hampton's award-winning play.’
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