In 1782, French novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos wrote Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a nasty tale of sex, lies and belles lettres, which became an instant best seller. You could call it the Fifty Shades of Grey of its day.
In 1985, Christopher Hampton adapted the tale of Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, former lovers who embark on a mutual challenge of seduction and conquest, for the stage. Palm Beach Dramaworks opened its production of the steamy script last week, and it runs through Sunday, March 1.
The play, like the book, shines a spotlight on the seamier side of man’s nature, sending the message that not much has changed since the late 18th century. “For me, that’s what it says,” offers the production’s director, Lynnette Barkley. “Human beings are human beings, whether it’s 1782 in Paris or 2015 in West Palm Beach.”
She is pretty sure, however, that neither de Laclos nor Hampton are condoning the unseemly actions of their characters. “It’s a cautionary tale, about the ethics of winning at any cost, about power,” says Barkley. “We’ve all done things in our lives that we’re maybe not proud of. And you might recognize some of those and you might choose to not do that again.
“For me, it’s about karma, that your actions have consequences. That when you make choices in your life, it goes around and eventually it does come back to you.”
Still, actors Kate Hampton and Jim Ballard, who play Merteuil and Valmont at Dramaworks, have to justify their characters’ actions to themselves in order to play them. Hampton — no relation to the adaptor — claims to have no problem with the task.
“I think it’s easy to justify it actually. Because it’s just a magnification of what people feel all the time. They just don’t go as far as Merteuil and Valmont do,” suggests the actress. “You can understand as an audience member, I think, what the dynamics are between them. It’s just that most people wouldn’t act so atrociously.
“It’s a game for them, but it just keeps escalating. They use people as pawns, to get back at each other. First, it’s revenge. I can understand that, but I wouldn’t necessarily act on it. That’s the difference.”
As Ballard says of his character, “He’s a viper. That’s my image of him. It says it in the novel. His venom is his wit and his words. That’s what he uses to get by. His whole day revolved around what he was going to eat and who he was going to sleep with tonight.
“That’s why I like acting. You get to play people that aren’t anything like you. But you still have to find the truth in yourself.”
The de Laclos source material has led to several film versions, including two from 1989 — Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont — as well as a more tongue-in-cheek contemporary version, 1999’s Cruel Intentions, set among high schoolers. To Barkley, this most recent movie illustrates that “a mean girl is a mean girl, no matter when.”
Barkley’s experience is largely as a choreographer, which is why, she believes, she was selected to helm this play. “The play has 18 scenes and visually, it is a dance. It is changing partners and dancing with the next partner. It’s a daisy chain of events. That definitely affects the way I stage the play, the flow of it, it just keeps going.” Stylistically, she says, “I’m thinking musical, without it being a musical.”
If her production were rated like movies are, Barkley suspects it would receive an “R.” “There’s no nudity, because I think it’s much sexier with clothes,” she says. “Once the clothes come off, you lose the sexual tension. But there is sexual content.”
“It’s not ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ that’s for sure,” chimes in Hampton.
“It’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s got a lot of humor in it. It’s about intrigue, love, lust, revenge, and it’s a great story,” says Barkley. “Did I mention that it’s sexy?”
LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, March 1. Tickets: $55-$67. Call: (561) 514-4042.