The libertine tricks devised by the Marquise de Merteuil and the Viscount de Valmont in Les amistats perilloses, which lived through a golden age of cinema with two productions at the end of the eighties, are now woven on the stage of the Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc (from 18 from May to June 18). It was Carol López who wanted to take this 18th century story to the theater, shortly before the French Revolution broke out.
The director chose Mónica López "by intuition" for the role of Marteuil, which a priori appears to be a complete success. The actress confesses: "When Carol proposed it to me, I jumped headfirst. She hadn't read the novel and it fascinated me." But the actress, despite being able to exhibit a consolidated and successful career, shows her insecurity: "The only fear is that the public will compare my character with the one in the film and not like my work."
Although Carol López declares that the film directed by Stephen Frears made “a great impression” on her, the piece that is now premiering part of the original work by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos from 1782. The epistolary novel between Merteuil and Valmont, now without noble titles, is the base that the playwright and director has adapted for the occasion.
Mónica López and Gonzalo Cunill give life to these two libertine characters, who throw themselves into bedroom challenges to see who can go further in their stratagems. Unlike Aznar, who said that he spoke Catalan privately, here they are the two who speak Spanish privately, while in public, both they and the rest of the characters speak Catalan.
Carol López justifies it like this: “I start from the fact that the actors speak in their mother tongue. For me it has a dramatic sense because when they are free they speak in Spanish, and thus I emphasize the freedom of these characters, but later they speak in Catalan because it is the prevailing language, it is the language of power”. And she adds: "It shouldn't be strange to anyone, it has to be natural."
Thus, Les amistats perilloses could well have Dangerous Liaisons as its official title, given this dramaturgical mix of languages, in a French court where only one language was spoken.
Cunill declares: "I don't speak Catalan well, although I've been here for many years, and interpreting it on stage is difficult for me. Now they haven't driven me crazy with phonetic details, as has happened on other occasions, and that It has allowed us to talk about it with a certain calm".
Along with Mónica López and Gonzalo Cunill, Eli Iranzo is Rosemonde, Marta Pérez is Volanges, Mima Riera is Tourvel, Elena Tarrats is Cécile, and Tom Sturgess is Danceny, a young British actor who came to Barcelona to teach English and who in the function it does that too, instead of the harp classes of the classic version. He does speak Catalan.
“The protagonist is society, which judges but allows,” continues the director. In the 19th century, Anna Karenina or the Regenta are also women who do what they want to do. Valmont is allowed everything, while Merteuil has to invent herself because she is a woman ”. Carol López considers that Chordelos is "quite a feminist author, because he also wrote a treatise on the education of women."
Regarding the temporal space, “everything is reminiscent of the 18th century but it is not at all faithful, we have removed the baroque style”, declares the director: “The crinolines are on the outside”.
“At first it seems like a palace comedy, about frivolous people, but afterwards it is a tragedy. With Mónica López I had an intuition, because she has the elegance of the character. Les amistats perilloses is a critique of a social class, they are stories that can only happen in idle societies”, she concludes.
Catalan version, here
