The Teatre Lliure closes the season with Carol López's version of Les amistats perilloses, an entertaining drama, at once frivolous and cruel, that irremediably heads towards a catastrophe that demolishes everything, leaving as the only escape an emergency exit to another reality. The upper class plays idly in the novel that Pierre Choderlos de Laclos wrote at the end of the 18th century, respected by the theater director, though with licenses, allowing a disco ball to appear in an old mansion while Frank Sinatra plays.
The weight of the plot falls on a Madame de Merteuil, excellently played by Mónica López, who makes and breaks the lives of those around her purely for pleasure, even boredom, asserting herself against those who subjugate her, them, regardless that most of her victims are women. A feminist emancipation without scruples, and without an ounce of political correctness or sorority, trying to teach others how to escape even if it means sinking them. There is Elena Tarrats' Cécile, a character who grows in each scene, rebels and enjoys, avoiding the punishment given to her by the French author, the convent, escaping from the Lliure stage as Merteuil does. The cast is completed by Gonzalo Cunill, Eli Iranzo, Mima Riera, Tom Sturguess and a graceful Marta Pérez.
They all live in a corseted society that the play points out with daring costumes, by Nidia Tusal, which externalizes and renders useless one of the typical garments of the era, the crinolines that served to shape dresses, evidencing the falsity of everything. These empty skirts are accompanied by the hollow words spoken by the characters, all dancing to the rhythm set by Merteuil, and her lover Valmont, some deceived, others accomplices.
Carol López has transformed the missives exchanged by Merteuil and Valmont into tension-filled encounters, moving the story forward with agility, intermingling scenarios and moments without anyone getting lost, with the success of including typical musical scenes that lighten an suffocating drama. The unbridled passion presumed in this card game, with much desire and betrayal, turns out to be a little timid, perhaps corseted, in the adaptation made by the Barcelona director, representing cunning sexual scenes despite being on a stage that sometimes overdoes them, as happened with the last performance of Yerma.
Catalan is mixed with Castilian and English in Carol López's commitment to maintaining the actors' mother tongues, featuring an Argentine Valmont (Gonzalo Cunill) and a British Danceny (Tom Sturgess). Valmont and Merteuil speak in Castilian in intimacy, with Catalan symbolizing the language of power, a decision that has stirred controversy, preventing focus on those spectators who did not understand what Danceny was saying, sounding with a perfect London accent and with subtitles, also, in English.
Les amistats perilloses has returned to the city 30 years later, after adaptations starring Juanjo Puigcorbé and Mercè Sampietro, as well as Anna Lizaran and Lluís Homar. This brings a good season for the Teatre Lliure to an end. With an occupancy of 74%, the Montjuïc and Gràcia venues have grown by 5% compared to last season and have doubled tickets sold to those under 35, relying on daring proposals, but also updating and reclaiming classics. The next season, which will begin in early September, will be the last for its director, Juan Carlos Martel, who will abruptly leave the position after holding it for five years.