UWM's Les liaisons dangereuses

Les liaisons dangereuses is a beguiling look at disjointed passion and emotional exploitation in France just before the French revolution. The original 1782 novel took the form of a series of letters between characters. The novel was trend into a stage play over 20 years later. Nearly 30 years after that stage adaptation first premiered, UWM Peck School of the Arts stages a big, decadent production of the classic story that runs for one weekend only. 

UWM's Les liaisons dangereuses is absolutely gorgeous. R.H. Graham's towering set has the kind of exasperating immensity that amplifies the emotional inescapability of the story. Jason Orlenko's costume design etches an almost uncomfrotable amount of detail into the proceedings. The high fashion of the aristocracy can be seen in every last detail mirroring the complexity of human interaction among a group of people who are precariously distant from actual physical need.

Sasha Sigel and McCormick Sweeney are well-paired as Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont--two who viciously manipulate the passions of others with a somewhat affectless detachment  from it all. Sigel is deliciously wicked in her role here. It's a very stylishly poised performance she brings to the stage. For his part, McCormick Sweeney is given a tremendous challenge in the role of Vicomte. He has to be a man passionately pursuing his own desires at the expense of others while simultaneously falling in love with a woman he is taking advantage of AND feeling deep emotions for a woman who cannot express genuine emotions for him in return WHILE being something of a fiendish disputant with her in regards to certain businesslike matters involving red, hot searing passion. Sweeney puts in a respectable appearance in the role. A devilishly difficult role to play, but Sweeney carries it off. 

The rest of the ensemble is peppered with some really nice performances. Maggie McGwinn is touchingly virtuous as Madame de Tourvel, who Vicomte finds himself actually falling for romantically. Gretchen Mahkorn is a heart-achingly fragile ivory tower of a human being as an innocent in the process of being corrupted. Emily Mello makes quite an impression with her brief moments onstage as Emilie. There's a sparklingly dark beauty about the way she embraces the role that's a lot of fun. 

The script pulls together the events with a irrepressible tension that has got to be very, very difficult to bring to the stage. Director Rebecca Holdernesss does a respectable job of drawing ti all together in the end, but I felt there was something lacking in the intensity at the end of the drama opening night. Precisely where this came from is difficult to pinpoint. The intensity of the emotions have to gradually become unbearably irrepressible in order for the ending to have the kind of impact it needs. Could it have been something lacking in the duel at the end? It was well-choreographed and executed. Could it have been something that Sigel failed to deliver under the weight of such an immensely complicated role? Could it simple have been an off night? I don't know. Probably a combination of different elements not quite coming through the way they needed to in order to really delve the drama's final impact. It's a very challenging script with a lot of moving pieces. Hampton doesn't make it easy. UWM's staging of  Les liaisons dangereuses  a really solid production regardless. I'd take it over any production of Les Misérables any day. Thanks to offerings on the Milwaukee stage this weekend, I don't have to. There's a production of that opening this weekend as well. 

UWM's production of Les liaisons dangereuses runs through November 24th at the UWM Mainstage Theatre. For ticket reservations, call 414-229-4308 or visit UWM online.