I admit it. I have generally steered clear of student productions, particularly of anything as well known and previously so popularly well received as Dangerous Liaisons, for fear of having to write a damning, or worse, for me, a disappointed review. However, on this occasion, I thought – it’s at the Playhouse – how bad can it be? What I should have asked myself was, how good can it be? The answer is, very! Good set, good costumes, good music (the ever present on-stage pianist, playing through each scene change was a little bit of brilliance), good script and good performances. A proper pleasant surprise.

It may be a blessed stroke of luck that the famously award winning film based on Christopher Hamilton’s 1985 stage adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s eighteenth century novel, was made well before the disgustingly young and talented writer, cast and creative crew of this production were born. Perhaps they have never seen it, or perhaps they chose to eschew all preconceived impressions of how the story and characters might present themselves, in preference for taking Christina Drollas’s stage play and making it their own, very successfully.

Principally I had dreaded that the actor taking on the formidable task of playing the key protagonist, the Vicomte de Valmont, would give a cringeworthy performance in an ill advised attempt at being John Malkovich. Thankfully, aided by a clever and witty script, Ziad Samaha, as well as being pretty easy on the eye, befitting of the alluring and fatally irresistible Vicomte, and being wholly convincing as the charmer, ne’er do well and seducer, also gave his character a genuinely comic twist. Rather than appearing as a malicious villain, intent on destroying his quarry, the Vicomte’s arrogance and seeming carelessness as he toys with his prey, is almost juvenile, albeit that he is playing the most adult of games. You can’t help but quite like him.

Knowing the story and given the ready laughs that came in the first act, I wondered how the changing fortunes and feelings of the characters would play out and how the humour that had previously prevailed could be turned effectively into the pathos required for the ultimately dark and tragic final scenes. Again, the cast did not disappoint. They gave emotive performances, which very effectively demonstrated the destruction that the vicious games played by the Vicomte and The Marquise de Merteuil has wrought. Although it didn’t detract from any enjoyment of the play, I was very aware of the two distinct halves to the production, one rather more light hearted, played for laughs, the other decidedly sombre and dramatic. Intentionally done, I am sure, but it felt a little disjointed.

My only other criticism would be that the second act felt a little rushed. Having got to know the characters in the first half, warmed, despite myself, to the Vicomte, and decided to rather loathe the Marquise, I wanted more time as the play drew to it’s tragic conclusion to witness the sea change in their characters, and to feel just a little more moved by the fates that befall them. But perhaps that’s the point. Too much sentiment is what finally destroys the Vicomte, and a denial of it is what allows the Marquise to ‘just carry on’, albeit in the cold and lonely world she has created for herself.