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| Michelle Dockery, Dominic West and Janet McTeer to star in Les Liaisons Dangereuses | |
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| An erotically charged encounter between three of Britain’s most celebrated actors is at the heart of this autumn’s season at the Donmar Warehouse, as the London theatre revives Les Liaisons Dangereuses. | An erotically charged encounter between three of Britain’s most celebrated actors is at the heart of this autumn’s season at the Donmar Warehouse, as the London theatre revives Les Liaisons Dangereuses. |
| Christopher Hampton’s play, adapted from the 18th-century French novel, hasn’t had a major production in 30 years in the UK since Alan Rickman seductively arched his eyebrows at Juliet Stevenson and Lesley Manville as the sexually scheming Vicomte de Valmont, vying with his female rival the Marquise de Merteuil. Valmont will be played by Dominic West, famed for his roles in US TV shows The Wire and The Affair as well as varied stage roles, while his co-stars include the Oscar-nominated Janet McTeer and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery. | Christopher Hampton’s play, adapted from the 18th-century French novel, hasn’t had a major production in 30 years in the UK since Alan Rickman seductively arched his eyebrows at Juliet Stevenson and Lesley Manville as the sexually scheming Vicomte de Valmont, vying with his female rival the Marquise de Merteuil. Valmont will be played by Dominic West, famed for his roles in US TV shows The Wire and The Affair as well as varied stage roles, while his co-stars include the Oscar-nominated Janet McTeer and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery. |
| Related: The Temple review – an immaculate reimagining of the Occupy London protests | Related: The Temple review – an immaculate reimagining of the Occupy London protests |
| The revival will be directed by the Donmar’s artistic director Josie Rourke, who told the Guardian: “I don’t think I have a particularly radical take on it, because it’s simply a great play … I’m figuring it out. You have to get the chemistry right, and with Janet and Dominic as that rivalrous, sexually charged pair I’m 80% of the way there, because they’re so brilliant.” | The revival will be directed by the Donmar’s artistic director Josie Rourke, who told the Guardian: “I don’t think I have a particularly radical take on it, because it’s simply a great play … I’m figuring it out. You have to get the chemistry right, and with Janet and Dominic as that rivalrous, sexually charged pair I’m 80% of the way there, because they’re so brilliant.” |
| She acknowledged how intimate the production would be in the 250-seat theatre, saying: “You are so close – it’s one of those spaces where you have to decide whether or not the character’s fingernails are dirty.” | She acknowledged how intimate the production would be in the 250-seat theatre, saying: “You are so close – it’s one of those spaces where you have to decide whether or not the character’s fingernails are dirty.” |
| Abi Morgan, who expertly synthesised the personal and political in her scripts for The Iron Lady, Brick Lane and the forthcoming Suffragette, is to meanwhile see her early play Splendour revived. The story of a photojournalist at the heart of a coup in an eastern European state, and her interactions with the dictator’s wife, her friend and her interpreter, it features another piquant cast in Zawe Ashton, Sinead Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Genevieve O’Reilly. | Abi Morgan, who expertly synthesised the personal and political in her scripts for The Iron Lady, Brick Lane and the forthcoming Suffragette, is to meanwhile see her early play Splendour revived. The story of a photojournalist at the heart of a coup in an eastern European state, and her interactions with the dictator’s wife, her friend and her interpreter, it features another piquant cast in Zawe Ashton, Sinead Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Genevieve O’Reilly. |
| “Plays are becoming more and more unfashionable,” said Rourke, adding that the revival was to help make the work part of “the conversation” in 2015. “It’s a great play that didn’t quite have its moment … the world has turned since [it was written] but the moment is no less relevant.” | “Plays are becoming more and more unfashionable,” said Rourke, adding that the revival was to help make the work part of “the conversation” in 2015. “It’s a great play that didn’t quite have its moment … the world has turned since [it was written] but the moment is no less relevant.” |
| Elsewhere in the programme, former Royal Court director Dominic Cooke is to helm the first UK production of Teddy Ferrara, a play by frequent Cooke collaborator Christopher Shinn. Rourke said she’d been courting Cooke ever since she began work at the Donmar in 2012, calling him “Christopher Shinn’s great interpreter … he really understands playwrights; he’s one of the great directors at working below the waterline with a playwright to really shape and bring a play to life.” | Elsewhere in the programme, former Royal Court director Dominic Cooke is to helm the first UK production of Teddy Ferrara, a play by frequent Cooke collaborator Christopher Shinn. Rourke said she’d been courting Cooke ever since she began work at the Donmar in 2012, calling him “Christopher Shinn’s great interpreter … he really understands playwrights; he’s one of the great directors at working below the waterline with a playwright to really shape and bring a play to life.” |
| Loosely inspired by the real-life suicide of a gay student at a US university, Rourke said that as well as being an exploration of campus politics, the play looks at “a series of conversations about young American identity … if you’re a young person in America now who is trying to find their voice, it’s quite a loud world”. | Loosely inspired by the real-life suicide of a gay student at a US university, Rourke said that as well as being an exploration of campus politics, the play looks at “a series of conversations about young American identity … if you’re a young person in America now who is trying to find their voice, it’s quite a loud world”. |
| The theatre company will also travel to America in the autumn. New York’s St Ann’s Warehouse, which moved from its original church location to a spice milling factory in Brooklyn in 2000, is to move again in the autumn and launch with a Donmar production. | The theatre company will also travel to America in the autumn. New York’s St Ann’s Warehouse, which moved from its original church location to a spice milling factory in Brooklyn in 2000, is to move again in the autumn and launch with a Donmar production. |
| Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female take on Henry IV, with Harriet Walter in the lead role, will transfer to the new theatre in the shadow of the Brooklyn bridge; in a five-star review, the Observer’s Susannah Clapp called the London production “tremendous … roughs up expectations on front after front”. St Ann’s previously hosted the transfer for the Donmar’s all-female Julius Caesar, the cast of which broke the ground for the new venue. | Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female take on Henry IV, with Harriet Walter in the lead role, will transfer to the new theatre in the shadow of the Brooklyn bridge; in a five-star review, the Observer’s Susannah Clapp called the London production “tremendous … roughs up expectations on front after front”. St Ann’s previously hosted the transfer for the Donmar’s all-female Julius Caesar, the cast of which broke the ground for the new venue. |
| With West et al, Rourke continues the theatre’s predilection for Hollywood stars in intense close-up. She directed Tom Hiddleston playing a gore-flecked Coriolanus last year, with that production airing in cinemas this autumn. Previous A-listers to have graced its stage have included Nicole Kidman, Ian McKellen, Jude Law and Ewan McGregor. | With West et al, Rourke continues the theatre’s predilection for Hollywood stars in intense close-up. She directed Tom Hiddleston playing a gore-flecked Coriolanus last year, with that production airing in cinemas this autumn. Previous A-listers to have graced its stage have included Nicole Kidman, Ian McKellen, Jude Law and Ewan McGregor. |