(Above: Tracy Brous as La Marquise de Merteuil, and Kory Weimer as Le Vicomte de Valmont, lead the cast of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Cottage Theatre; photo by Max Arnold.)

By Randi Bjornstad

Here’s what Susan Goes, executive director at Cottage Theatre, had to say in a recent email message:

“We open our 2025 season with Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which will be on stage February 7 to 23. We’ve got a great cast for this one, and some extraordinary costumes. Should be entertaining!”

And it should be, because Goes goes on to describe it as “a scandalous drama full of scheming aristocrats.”

The play is drawn from a French novel written in 1782 by Choderlos de Laclos — for a bit of historical reference, that was five years before the U.S. Constitution was ratified — and the rendition here is a stage adaptation done by Christopher Hampton in 1985, a bit more than two centuries later.

For a little more entertainment history, it was turned into a movie in 1988, renamed Dangerous Liaisons and featured actors Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Peter Capaldi, and Keanu Reeves.

As for the Cottage Theatre version, Goes says to “prepare yourself for the decadence of pre-Revolutionary France,” where two former lovers, now rivals, manipulate everyone else for their own amusement, resulting in a “tangled web of debauchery (that) spirals out of control” in a collision of power, lust, and betrayal.

Jesse Merz directs the Cottage Theatre production, with J. Sterling as assistant director and stage manager, and Shelby Chasen as assistant stage manager, with set design by Tony Rust, costumes by Rhonda Turnquist, lighting by Amanda Ferguson and  sound by Jeffery Egbert.

The cast includes Tracy Brous, Kory Weimer, Serene Zamora, Moura Stewart, Alana Merz, Matthew Chasen, Elizabeth Peterson, Clancy Miller, Lauren Carter, John Young, and Avery Eberardo.

Note: Goes emphasizes that the play contains mature themes and is not recommended for young children.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Cottage Theatre

When: Evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 7-8, 13-15, and 20-22; matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 16, and 23

Where: Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove (east of the I-5 freeway off Exit 174)

Tickets: $29 for adults and $15 for youths (reserved seating only and advance purchase recommended), available by telephone at 541-942-8001 or online at cottagetheatre.org

 

[Above, left to right, cast members of Cottage Theatre’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Avery Eberardo (footman), Elizabeth Peterson (Madame de Rosemonde ),  Moura Stewart (Madame de Volanges), Matthew Chasen (Le Chevalier Danceny), Tracy Brous (La Marquise de Merteuil), Kory Weimer  (Le Vicomte de Valmont), Clancy Miller (Azolan), and John Young (Major Domo). Photo by Max Arnold.]