Q&A with Les Liaisons Dangereuses director Brenda DeVita

We recently chatted up Brenda DeVita, APT's Artistic Director Designate and Les Liaisons Dangereuses director. Here are some of her thoughts on the play and its people. What drew you to Les Liaisons Dangereuses? Brenda: Why this play? Because we're seduced by these people. And we're also seduced by the idea that we may get to see them receive their comeuppance. In order for this play to be successful, we have to both love them and desperately want to see their demise. And I think that's a great duality in the human spirit. The question of why would we do this play, since the central characters are so corrupt, was fascinating. I didn't look at it like why this play, I looked at it like of course this play! It's gutsy and sexy and ugly and beautiful and repulsive and seductive all at the same time. And had all of those pieces, and seemed to me obvious that the play was perfect for us, and for the Touchstone. How do you think the characters, especially Merteuil and Valmont, can maintain that compelling/repulsive quality? Brenda: The lives of these people are seductive. They're people we hate -they're so horrifying we can hardly stand to watch them. But it's also impossible to look away. And the question of why they are the way they are is so compelling. What drives these two individuals, Valmont and Merteuil, to live like this? To behave in this fashion? What is it that they believe so fully that they commit themselves to this abhorrent behavior without any real consideration of the cost not just to the people they're playing with, but the cost to them? That's the big thing for me. Merteuil and Valmont, they believe that this sport costs them nothing. And I'm not sure that's true. And as a woman, I'm very interested in Merteuil. In today's society, she could very well be a senator. She has the intelligence, the discipline, the power the influence, the education. She has all the things that one would need to be an effective and powerful person in a society, but in her timeframe, she has nowhere to put that. She has meticulously sculpted her life, removed pieces of her heart and conscience, I believe, in order to commit to the one place where she can exact the kind of power that is available to her. Sex. Through that sexual control, she can feel powerful. She can understand that she's smarter and more aware and in control than the people around her. In the end, I think it's the kind of effort and intelligence and decisiveness it takes to live the kind of lives they're living that makes them so interesting. And the fact that Merteuil and Valmont enjoy each other so very much, and that they seem to know each other in a way that human beings hardly ever do. It's something to behold. Why is this play still so relevant today? Brenda: The book Les Liaisons Dangereuses is actually considered by some to have helped spur the French Revolution. It was written during a time when the world hadn't seen a society as wealthy or as decadent as the French aristocracy. The Romans perhaps. 21st Century America may be starting to feel like its more modern counterpart. I feel like that's what this play is kind of addressing. When these people can do anything and everything, and what they choose to do is perpetrate their boredom onto people who are less fortunate than them. Simply to entertain themselves. To feel powerful. To feel like they have a purpose. And the tool by which they choose to express themselves, the tool by which they use to put people in their place is sex. That's how they subdue their victims. And I feel like everything in the world - now, then and probably in the future - is about sex. And sex is about power. Which is an interesting thought in the context of this play. But yeah, I think this play has a lot to do with us now. It's cruel, and it's ugly. And it's fascinating. It's also visually stunning. Brenda: I love the set. I love that Nate has given us this place to create. And in it, an elegance. A controlled elegance. The excess of the chandeliers. The height and scope of the black on black feeling of it. It's an active comment on the excess, without a lot of extra guilding. I really didn't want the play to be burdened by costume and set changes, and Nate really incorporated the feeling of decadence that I was looking for without having to fill the set with actual decadence. Costumes as well. Each costume exudes wealth specific to the character, and says something specific about that character. Whether it's frivolity or leisure or money or lifestyle, the costumes embody that about each individual character. Clean and simple and sharp, because they're sumptuous period costumes, but there's a little modern feel to them. They're direct and unfussy. They are beautiful, but allow the actors to move, to be languid, in them. Anything you'd like to add? Brenda: In the end, I think it's best to let the play speak for itself. It's got a lot to say.