The more things change ... STC drama set in 1700s

Period dramas and comedies have an appeal because they give us a glimpse of other times — strange costumes, mannerisms and language. But they stay with us only if they also tell us something important about ourselves.

So although Sudbury Theatre Centre’s season opening production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Christopher Hampton takes place in the 1780s (not long before the French Revolution), many of its themes are universal. Some things about human nature just don’t change.

The story involves the famously licentious Vicomte de Valmont and his onetime lover and fellow conspirator the Marquise de Merteuil. It is a time when aristocratic men can do whatever they want (and bed whomever they choose) while women can be ruined by the slightest breath of scandal.

With this in mind, the Marquise plans to get revenge for being scorned by a former lover who is soon to be married, by having Valmont seduce the other man’s innocent bride-to-be, Cecile. To Valmont, the seduction of a young virgin isn’t enough of a challenge.

He bets the Marquise that he can successfully entrap the beautiful Madame de Tourvel, known for her steadfast virtue and faithfulness to her husband. He gleefully undertakes both tasks while the Marquise wickedly pulls strings behind the scenes. Both delight in using love and sex to destroy.

The excesses of the rich and powerful, the inequalities of society, the cruelty of people to one another, and the perilous minefield of sexual relationships seem to be eternal elements of the human condition.

You’ll find the same in reality television and tabloid news, except in Les Liaisons Dangereuses they’re dressed up with gorgeous costumes and extravagant (though paper thin) manners.

The pace of this production is as unhurried as those well-primped figures reclining on a settee, though sparked up by bawdy sexual trysts and a climactic swordfight. Actor Mac Fyfe lays the smarmy charm on thickly as Valmont, but is persuasive in his protestations of love. As the Marquise, Kerry Ann Doherty appears too sweet for such a conniving monster, yet that may be the key to her success.

Kendra Williams is convincingly naïve and lustful as Cecile, and Meredith Zwicker endears herself to the audience as the so-very-reluctant lover Mme. de Tourvel, while the rest of the cast is also well worth watching.

There are brief moments of nudity, though not during student matinees.

Before the main feature, audiences are treated to a 10-minute one-act play called “Golden Girl” by Sudbury Living Magazine managing editor
Vicki Gilhula (who's also a former Northern Life editor) about real-life female prospector Mary Violet Martin, who struck it rich from Kirkland Lake mines.

I was impressed by Gilhula’s natural dialogue telling an interesting story from our northern past.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses runs until Oct. 31 at the Sudbury Theatre Centre. The box office number is 705-674-838, ext. 21 or visit www.sudburytheatre.ca.

Scott Overton is the author of the thriller Dead Air. He writes theatre reviews for Northern Life.