Theatre: Revival time
Aidan Turner and Monica Barbaro in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre.
SARAH LEE
Waitrose bags are stacked in the house, everyone touting mobile phones that Ibsen’s visiting spirit might assume to be a new type of gun.
For producers, the beauty of reviving well-known scripts is that familiarity sells tickets, but plays often arise organically from their times and so may age. Four revivals of shows that have proved lucrative in the past test this tension. Intriguingly, the youngest piece feels the most nervous. Les Liaisons Dangereuses – an adaptation by Christopher Hampton of the 1782 French epistolatory novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos – was a vast success after its 1985 RSC premiere: five years in the West End, one on Broadway and a 1988 Oscar-winning movie.
Get Instant Access
Continue Reading
Register for free to read this article in full
Subscribe for unlimited access
From just £37.50 quarterly
Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.
Already a subscriber? Login
Help us keep The Tablet’s voice independent, clear and far-reaching.
Founded in 1840, The Tablet is the leading independent English-language Catholic weekly, celebrated for great writing, astute analysis, brilliant arts and books reviews and trustworthy reporting from correspondents in Britain, Ireland, Rome and across the world.
Independent, high-quality journalism is at the heart of what we do. The Tablet does not have deep pockets and we are not funded by rich donors. If you appreciate our work please consider supporting The Tablet’s Development Fund. It only takes a moment and you can cancel at any time.
- Support with £5 per month
- Support with £10 per month
- Support with other amount.
MOST READ ARTICLES
-
1
Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia meets with other worldwide Catholic Church leaders to discuss liturgy
-
2
Let there be light
-
3
World Humanitarian Day: aid workers face a ‘crisis of protection’
-
4
Ruling allows French private hospitals limited exemption from assisted suicide
-
5
A tract for our times
-
6
Letters to the Editor of The Tablet
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
