Photo by Joan Marcus
It's your last chance to catch our #ShowOfTheWeek and one of the finest stage actors of our time in Janet McTeer, as the Donmar Warehouse production of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses will play its final performance at Broadway's Booth Theatre on January 8th, 2017.
Directed by the Donmar's Artistic Director Josie Rourke, this production boasts a stellar cast and a beautifully crafted and ghostly scenic design by Tom Scutt, which sovereignly tells this infamous tale of lust, revenge and 18th century scandal.
Having already played the role of La Marquise de Merteuil in the London production, Britain's Janet McTeer returns to the New York stage with an utterly captivating and bitterly nuanced performance that resembles perhaps the best of any dramatic performance seen this Broadway season. She is accompanied by Tony winner and five-time Golden Globe nominee Liev Schreiber as her sexual sparring partner Le Vicomte de Valmont, as well as well-rounded supporting performances from the likes of Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (as Madame de Tourvel), Elena Kampouris (as Cécile Volanges), and Mary Beth Peil (as Madame de Rosemonde), among others.
The decaying set, scattered with empty picture frames mirrors the decomposition of the class of aristocracy and Michael Bruce has composed equally haunting music specifically for this production. During scene changes, cast members sing and chant in unison, often carrying burning candles across the stage. The effect heightens the degree of threat and conveys the feeling of uneasiness and foreboding ahead of the play's bitter climax.
There are also some beautiful moments created by supporting cast members. In particular the heart-wrenching scene between Birgitte Hjort Sørensen's Madame de Tourvel and Mary Beth Peil's Madame de Rosemonde struck a chord with me. Tourvel pours out her soul and Rosemonde reveals she knows all too well the dangerous games being played and emerges as the voice of reason instead of an oblivious, ageing figure. It is moments like these that further enrich a production, which is so heavily dominated by the lead character's performance.
Click HERE to read our interview with Tony nominee Mary Beth Peil.
If you revel in notions of psychological warfare, then witnessing these two aristocratic icons cruelly manipulate each other and leave a line of victims in their wake may be just the treat for you!
Click here for tickets to Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which plays its final performance on January 8th, 2017 at Broadway's Booth Theatre.
Janet McTeer & Liev Schreiber in Les Liaisons Dangereuses More Production PhotosOriginally published on