We are already familiar with the intriguing flavor of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons, this exchange of letters in which the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont embark on a game more treacherous than gallant. A text full of humor, love, cruelty, and hatred, whose diverse stage and screen adaptations have revealed its richness. An opportunity for some to showcase the full fantasy of this libertine game. The Théâtre Fébus presented a new adaptation on Tuesday evening, marking a return to the very essence of the text.
On the stage of the Théâtre des Nouveautés, Anna Mazzotti is stage left and Bruno Spiesser stage right. When the lovers' relationship becomes ambiguous, when the game of cat and mouse turns into a squid game. In her staging, Françoise Delile-Manière returns to the essentials, to the duel to the death between Valmont and Merteuil. Without deciding which of the two is the more diabolical, the more nihilistic in their view of society. From subtle touches to a deadly battle, when the masks of the game fall away, when profound perversity is revealed, the duel knows no bounds. Superb, like a black pearl.
