How Dangerous Liaisons helped in my theater work

The author is a copywriter for Foote, Cone & Belding, a multinational ad agency in Makati. She is a professional stage actress, having appeared in Dramatis Personae’s Madame De Sade and Peer Gynt. In her free time, she plays flag football for the Fun Flag Football Group on Sundays and practices Aikido every Tuesday and Thursday.

Rich. Delicious. Decadent.

Like a dark, swirling piece of chocolate cake, Dangerous Liaisons is a movie that never fails to seduce the senses. Based upon the novel of Choderlos de Laclos and the subsequent play of Christopher Hampton, the story begins with a lavish display of cloaks, frocks and dresses as Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) primps in preparation for her greatest seduction: the conquest of Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich).

Both the Marquise and the Vicomte form a diabolical plan to lure two innocent pawns into their sticky, sexual webs. The first unsuspecting victim is the virginal young bride Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman) who proves to be a willing and easy prey for the Vicomte.

Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer) plays the part of the faithful wife to the hilt. Suspicious of the Vicomte’s motives, Madame de Tourvel continually shies away from his presence through prayer and religious works. The Vicomte, knowing her weakness for piety and good work, wins her over with charitable deeds at an orphanage. Once a sworn enemy of the rich and bored aristocrat, Madame de Tourvel now becomes a staunch advocate of the Vicomte’s supposed plan to change from sinner to saint.

As the guileless lamb falls for the cunning wolf, ultimate plot twist happens. The Vicomte de Valmont the seducer now becomes the seduced. When Madame de Tourvel hears about the seduction of Cecile, she flagellates herself with thoughts of her own fall from grace.

Knowing that she has fallen from her high moral pedestal, Madame de Tourvel flees to a convent where she is scourged and whipped to atone for her sins. She does not survive the beating and dies the morning after.

Meanwhile, the Vicomte de Valmont fights a duel with Chevalier Danceny (Keanu Reeves) to avenge Cecile de Volanges’ honor. The Vicomte eventually dies with only Madame de Tourvel’s name on his lips.

To be open to true passion, one must accept the dualities that exist in the universe like life or death, winning or losing. To be willing to accept both terms with equanimity and grace is the greatest lesson of all.

When I auditioned for my first theater role in Dramatis Personae’s Madame de Sade, a play by Yukio Mishima, I had no idea how to play a French aristocrat who was both a couquette and a wily seducer of men. At that time, I only wanted to audition for the heck of it, and see if I still had it in me to get a theater role. Little did I know that Lito Casaje, the artistic director of the group, wanted me to pursue the acting role for the play. So without any formal theater background except for a few theater workshops over the summer and an acting scholarship in New Voice Company, I accepted the part of Anne.

From doubt to depression, I swung from one emotion to another while questioning the practicality of my dream. It was then that I remembered how each of the characters in Dangerous Liaisons pursued their passion with all their heart and soul even at the cost of their lives. For each great passion one is called upon to risk everything.

My first stage appearance asked me to give up the comfort of security to venture into the unknown. It asked me to sacrifice looking perfect in order for me to learn new things about myself.

And, happily, the risk paid off. My first professional stage debut was a rousing success followed by one theatrical coup after another. That faint flicker of passion has now burst into one beautiful flame of ambition. A vision that now has become my magnificent obsession.