This is a play about lust, cruelty, and decadence on the one hand, and about innocence and the deepest love on the other. It seems unfair that those who have the greatest capacity for love are so often the most deeply hurt, but as the wise and compassionate Madame de Rosemonde gently explains to the young and unhappy Madame de Tourvel: “That’s life. That’s men.” There is a line in the musical Man of La Mancha spoken by Sancho Panza: “Whether the stone hits the vase, or the vase hits the stone, it’s going to be bad for the vase.” So it is for poor Tourvel. And – to his own amazement – so it is for the dangerous and destructive Valmont, for we discover that he too has – hidden deep within him – the capacity for love. In the society he has so much helped to create, this is a fatal flaw.

However, perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this story is what becomes of the Marquise de Merteuil, the most ruthless and successful manipulator of all those around her.

It is for each one of us to conjecture what her future may hold, but perhaps – in the end – the only true survivors of this tragedy are those who, in spite of what they have experienced, are still young enough and strong enough to regain their belief in what is good and true, and those like the elderly Rosemonde, who – in spite of all that she has seen – has somehow never lost her faith.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, I believe, a morality tale for us all, and for all time.

Tim Hardy