Joseph Taylor and Antoinette Brooks-Daw in Dangerous Liaisons
Credit: Emma Kauldhar
Northern Ballet is back with a bang. Their first touring production since the pandemic began is a revival of David Nixon’s 2004 bodice-ripper, Dangerous Liaisons, also making its belated London premiere. It should satisfy anyone emerging from an intimacy-deprived lockdown.
Staging Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century epistolary novel, with its intricate interlocking plots and arch repartée, is a tough ask, even with the model of Christopher Hampton’s excellent 1985 theatrical adaptation. The ballet follows the scheming Vicomte de Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil, who set out to ruin innocent bride-to-be Cécile Volanges and the devout Madame de Tourvel. If Valmont can seduce Tourvel, he wins the ultimate prize: the Marquise herself.