The National Theatre just opened its doors to the lavish revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Lesley Manville, Aidan Turner and Monica Barbaro.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses follows two louche French aristocrats play a salacious game of manipulation, seduction and humiliation in the name of jealousy and revenge in this revival of Christopher Hampton's classic play, after Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1785 novel of the same name, directed by Marianne Elliott (The Curious Case of The Dog In The Night-Time, War Horse).

Take a read below to find out what the critics thought of London's new addition.

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The Reviews

The Standard

"In this precise, stately, sometimes ponderous revival by Marianne Elliott, the script is more self-consciously aphoristic than I remember. Many of the lines sound like they're designed to be quoted rather than just spoken."

"[Lesley Manville's] Marquise here is worth the price of admission alone: imperiously coquettish, icily self-assured, always supremely in the moment."

The Guardian

"A queenly Lesley Manville steals the show in this dark, rageful tale of seduction as contact sport"

"Together, they are deliciously horrible, although it is Manville (who played Cecile in the play's original staging) that steals the show. She looks queenly in magnificent ornate dress, its vivid red denoting the bloodsport of her scheme."

"A moral story at its core, the story builds to the mutual destruction of both its central villains, by which time this stylish production has finally found its dark, menacing heart."

The Telegraph

"Lesley Manville is magnificent alongside a repellant Aidan Turner, two erotic conquistadors in an expos of the play's ugly core"

"Earlier revivals have leant into the thrill of watching amoral libertines behave despicably with admittedly variable results. Not so Marianne Elliot's chilly, portentous production... which refuses to sugar coat the play's rotten ugly core. It is, after all, hard these days to play a sexual predator for laughs."

The Independent

"Classic tale of Machiavellian sexuality is given new life at the National Theatre, pairing Manville with Poldark' star Aidan Turn"

"This mix of sumptuousness and precision is typical of Marianne Elliott's sweeping staging of scandalous French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses,... And when its finely tooled pieces start to fall out of place, it's devastating."

"Still, the greatest strength of Hampton's reworking is also the biggest triumph of this production: the icy brilliance of Merteuil, powered by Manville's wonderful performance."

WhatsOnStage

"From its opening moments, Marianne Elliott's production subtly reconfigures Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the MeToo generation."

"Manville and Turner are simply superb, their performances deep and thoughtful. They make the characters fallibly human, and Elliott makes the evening sing."