Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville's period drama hailed "a triumph" is now available to watch at home

The stage version of a French epistolary novel with a stellar cast, including Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner, is now available to stream from the comfort of your home.

If you didn't make it to the National Theatre in time to catch Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Christopher Hampton's adaptation of the 1782 novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, fret not as the National Theatre's own streaming platform will give you the chance to stream the best plays on offer.

After playing in cinemas earlier this year, the play directed by Marianne Elliott is now available on National Theatre at Home, which offers a 7-day trial before subscribing.

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In Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Manville stars as the Marquise de Merteuil, described as a "master in the art of survival" who "wields her influence with intelligence and control". Opposite Manville is Turner's magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, with whom the Marquise is involved in a game of seduction and scheming.

The former lovers engage in a one-upping contest whose aim is challenging the other in seducing unaware third parties, but what started as a fun game quickly turns destructive.

"When their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path," the synopsis teases.

Also starring Monica Barbaro, the play received positive reviews following its theatre debut in March this year.

City AM called it "a triumph" that owes its success to its darkest elements, while Time Out praised the central performances in this "sexy, sinister" play.

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"Manville is of course an absurdly good actor, one of the all time greats, and Turner is not bloody bad either," they wrote. "In the sexy, sinister, mirror-filled world… the two leads are the main attraction and rightly so."

De Laclos's novel was adapted for the stage by Hampton in 1985. The play originated in London's West End before it moved to Broadway two years later.

As for the big screen, Stephen Frears' adaptation, titled Dangerous Liaisons, was released in 1988, while the 1990s gifted us a star-studded, modern-day take on the novel with Cruel Intentions, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe as Kathryn Merteuil and Sebastian Valmont.

A 2022 TV now-cancelled TV remake series from Starz curiosuly also starred Manville alongside Game of Thrones' Carice van Houten, Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is available to stream on National Theatre at Home.

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Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy. 

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).