Courtesy Mike Guerra plays Le Vicomte de Valmont who is trying to seduce Madame de Tourvel, played by Carolyn Balogh.

When Trinity's theater arts department announced it was putting on a production of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (“Dangerous Liaisons”), Martin Kushner, Trinity's coordinator of theater arts, said audition turnouts were higher than that of other university productions.

Such high turnout came as little surprise to Kushner.

“There is a hell of a lot of talking about sex ..... and people get the impression that that's what the whole thing is about,” Kushner said of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” a 1780s novel that has been adapted several times over in both stage and film versions. “The name of the play is what it's about — dangerous liaisons.”

If the play sounds familiar, that's probably because you remember it as being told in one of its American forms — including the 1999 feature film, “Cruel Intentions.” That film, which starred Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon, is perhaps best remembered for its infamous kissing scene between Gellar and co-star Selma Blair, which even won an MTV Movie Award in the Best Kiss category.

But “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” unlike that contemporary film adaptation, is rooted in the past.

The play, originally adapted into stage form by Christopher Hampton, is based in the 1780s and revolves around characters trying to seduce and corrupt others by various — often devious — means.

“It's absolutely not” boring, Kushner said, “and it's very contemporary in that sense.”

Because of the historical setting, Trinity's production of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” — set in and around Paris — will feature elaborate stage designs and costumes. The actresses have even had to rehearse in their corsets to get used to them.

“They have to fit into the clothing of the times, but if all of a sudden the week before the show opened they started doing that, it could be a problem as far as the rehearsal and the performance,” Kushner said.

CLINT HALE | 210SA