Les Liaisons Dangereuses (play)

Les liaisons dangereuses
Poster for the 2008 Roundabout Theatre Company production
Written by	Christopher Hampton
Date premiered	24 September 1985
Place premiered	The Other Place Stratford-upon-Avon
Original language	English
Subject	A tale of seduction, revenge, and human malice
Genre	Drama
Setting	Various salons and boudoirs in hotels and châteaux in and around Paris and the Bois de Vincennes during an autumn and winter in the late 1780s

Les liaisons dangereuses (French pronunciation: ​[le ljɛ.zɔ̃ dɑ̃.ʒə.ʁøz]) is a play by Christopher Hampton adapted from the 1782 novel of the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The plot focuses on the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, rivals who use sex as a weapon of humiliation and degradation, all the while enjoying their cruel games. Their targets are the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel and Cécile de Volanges, a young girl who has fallen in love with her music tutor, the Chevalier Danceny. In order to gain their trust, Merteuil and Valmont pretend to help the secret lovers so they can use them later in their own treacherous schemes.

Staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the play opened at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon on 24 September 1985. Directed by Howard Davies, the cast included Lindsay Duncan as the Marquise de Merteuil, Alan Rickman as the Vicomte de Valmont, Juliet Stevenson as Madame de Tourvel, Lesley Manville as Cécile de Volanges, and Sean Baker as the Chevalier Danceny.

On 8 January 1986, the production transferred to The Pit, an intimate studio theatre in the Barbican Centre in London, with its original cast intact. Christopher Hampton won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, and Lindsay Duncan received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. In October 1986, with only a few cast changes, the production further transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.