Rockland Community College’s Performing Arts department and Campus Players club present “Dangerous Liaisons” for a three-day engagement November 15-17 at the College’s Cultural Arts Theater. Doors open at 7:30 pm and performances begin at 8 pm.
The play, known by its French title of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” was first staged in London in 1985 by playwright Christopher Hampton. Hampton’s production was a theatrical adaptation of the eponymous 18th-century French novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. A film, “Dangerous Liaisons,” starring Glenn Close, John Malcovich and Michelle Pfeiffer came out in 1988.
Set in pre-Revolution Paris amid the French aristocracy, “Dangerous Liaisons” tells the story of a scheming widow, the Marquise de Merteuil, who plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Bastide, who has recently ended their relationship. She seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges, who spent her formative years in sheltered life as a nun. The bet made by the Marquise and Comte regarding the corruption of Cécile leads to all manner of deception and intrigue.
“’Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ depicts an amoral tale of such relatable malice and human frailty that it could be told within any century of human history,” said Christopher Plummer, Cultural Arts Theater director. “Audiences have always seemed to be captivated by tales framed by deliberately deceitful actions and intermingled with scintillating sinfulness. One need only hark back to Shakespeare or some of the Greek champions of the theater to see the facts of their continued popularity.”
“These types of stories … will continue to hold a mirror up to nature,” said Patty Maloney-Titland, Performing Arts chair and Campus Players adviser, “to focus that reflection of ourselves back upon the viewer, forever hoping that one day the visage will change and leave not darkness revealed, but ultimately the light of love and happiness.”
Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and senior citizens. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at SeatYourself.biz.
The Cultural Arts Theatre is wheelchair accessible. For more information, please call 845-574-4471.
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