Video review transcript (lightly edited for grammar): Les Liaisons Dangereuses – I never know how you pronounce that.
Dangerous Liaisons at the National Theatre, starring Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville, is superb. I’m just going to come straight out and say it.
The chemistry between the two leads is fantastic. There’s a delightful mixture of competitiveness and playfulness, but also respect and admiration between the two of them, which is just a delight to watch.
They use a lot of movement and a lot of dance, and this is really effective.
Who people are partnering with the style and tone of the movement, the absences from certain movement pieces and dance pieces all have their own story to tell, and really enhance the storytelling. And I really enjoy that.
The costumes are incredible, beautiful, beautiful costumes.
And the set, the Lyttelton stage is vast, and they use the space really well. They don’t have a lot of sets.
They use little bits of it, which get moved around to create these smaller, compact, intimate spaces, but they also almost feel like entrapment as well.
Again, it’s all being used to tell the story, to enhance and add to the story.
So yeah, I love this. It’s getting a big fat five stars from me.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, National Theatre
Written by Christopher Hampton and based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Directed by Marianne Elliot
Starring Lesley Manville, Aidan Turner, Monica Barbaro and Hannah van der Westhuysen
Running time: 3 hours, including an interval
Booking until 6 June, 2026.
In cinemas from 26 June.
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