LIAISONS

28 July 2026

As I noted in the Return to Perth blog on 12 March this year, I’ve always been fascinated by Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. I’ve seen film versions and theatrical versions so when it was announced that a National Theatre production was showing on screen, I booked my tickets instantly. My enthusiasm was slightly mitigated by the casting of Lesley Manville as the Marquise de Mertieul. Part of the story is that you have to believe that once there was a powerful love affair between the two Machiavellian protagonists, Mertieul and the Vicomte de Valmont. This doesn’t mean that they have to have been the same age. After all there was a 7-year gap between Glenn Close and John Malkovich when they starred in the film version back in 1988. But no matter how wonderful Manville is as a performer, she’s nearly 30 years older than her co-star, Irish actor Aidan Turner. So I went to see the film with some trepidation. 


In some ways Turner has the harder job. Valmont has to be believable as a loving nephew, an inspired philander, an appalling seducer, a consummate liar AND he has to be believable as a love interest for a modest young wife AND we have to believe that he, a man with no scruples, falls in love with her. And Turner didn’t quite manage to pull it off. 

Given my previous comments about Manville, if it wasn’t for the age issue, her performance was impeccable. She looked fabulous in brilliant red satin but also in a black lace corset. The staging captured the louche mood with swirling dancers moving to erotic and mirrors glistening amongst the dark. For the most part and for all my criticism, the production was utterly absorbing for three hours. It’s just that because I love the book, I wanted more.



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