Actors’ Theatre of Washington’s artistic director, Jeffrey Johnson (left), steals the show as the Marquise de Merteuil to Christopher Henley’s Vicomte de Valmont in an all-male version of ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses.’ (Photo by Ray Gniewek)
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BRIAN MOYLAN
Friday, August 12, 2005
RELOCATION SEEMS TO be a recurring theme for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” the newest production by D.C.’s gay theater production company, the Actors’ Theatre of Washington. Upon arriving at the new Busboys and Poets space at 14th and V streets, NW, where the play was supposed to be the inaugural event, guests were greeted by someone telling them it has moved because the venue isn’t ready yet.
Told that Busboys hadn’t secured a permit of occupancy, the play was moved two blocks down to the Source Theatre at 14th and T streets, where it initially was rehearsed. The cast and crew’s familiarity with the venue made it a smooth transition, but it was explained to the audience that some of the choices made in staging the play had to do with the limitations of the as-yet-unseen Busboys.
Because this new “restaurant/bar/bookstore/theatre,” as it is called in the program, has no dressing rooms or backstage area, all the players had to remain on stage throughout the entire production.
But thanks to clever sets by Greg Stevens, this proved to be a fortuitous solution to a simple problem. The actors’ constant presence on stage (and sometimes in the audience) was not only handled well, but became a way to amplify the themes of the play.
LEE MIKESKA GARDENER directed this all-male version of this familiar story. Initially a scandalous novel by Choderlos de Laclos, published in France in 1782, Christopher Hampton later translated it into a play, which was then the source material for the popular 1988 film “Dangerous Liaisons.”
Still set in the aristocratic world of 18th century France, ATW’s “Liaisons” follows the scheming Marquise de Merteuil (Jeffrey Johnson) and her former lover and partner in crime, Vicomte de Valmont (Christopher Henley), as they seduce and betray everyone around them for sport.
Initially, the Marquise wants Valmont to seduce the naïve Cecile (Brent Stansell), but he refuses because he has his heart set on the conquest of the overly pious and married Le Presidente de Tourval (Peter Klaus). The Marquise strikes a bargain with Valmont: If he can bed Tourval and get her to confess the union in a letter, then she will have sex with him again.
“Liaisons,” a quip-laden treatise on love, lust, betrayal and social conventions, is as striking today as it was when originally composed. In this production, all the characters are watching and reacting as the drama unfolds.
Most of the men playing women put on feminine airs, and the audience soon forgets the biological gender of the player and instead relies on the physical and behavioral trappings that the character displays.
In some instances, like when the Marquise talks about how she learned to be strong because women in her era are treated as second-class citizens, the trope of a man playing a woman translates the speech into also being about gay men in today’s society.
While there may be too much nudity in the play for some people’s tastes, ATW’s “Liaisons” is a well-crafted innovation that takes well-worn material and believably stretches it to make an even bolder statement about love, gender and sexual politics.
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