Queensland Ballet’s new work, Liam Scarlett’s Dangerous Liaisons, is sexy as all hell

The world premiere of Queensland Ballet’s Dangerous Liaisons is the sexiest thing you will see on stage this year outside of a strip club.

Rachael Wals. Picture: David Kelly

LIAM SCARLETT’S DANGEROUS LIAISONS (QUEENSLAND BALLET)

Until April 6, Playhouse Theatre, QPAC

Reviewed by Phil Brown:

You like sex? You like music? You like dancing? You do? Well, boy, have we got a show for you! It’s Queensland Ballet’s most daring production ever and it should finally lay to rest the idea that Queensland is a land of wowsers and a cultural wasteland.

Dangerous Liaisons is a world premiere, a ballet by the acclaimed British choreographer Liam Scarlett, artist-in residence with the Royal Ballet in London. Queensland Ballet’s artistic director Li Cunxin made Scarlett, 32, an artistic associate a few years ago and he has worked on several productions with our state company.

Queensland Ballet Dangerous Liaisons

When Li gave him carte blanche to create a ballet from scratch Scarlett threw caution to the wind and chose to stage a ballet based on the scandalous 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, which has been adapted for stage and screen. The two movies we know are - the 1988 Dangerous Liaisons which starred Glenn Close and John Malkovich and the 1999 Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Selma Blair and Reese Witherspoon.

They were both raunchy but when you’re doing a ballet you need to be a bit more refined don’t you?

Liam Scarlet and Queensland Ballet's production of Dangerous Liaisons at The Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane.

No way! I was cautioned that it was, well, saucy, and there is a warning that it’s not suitable for children. But … OMG! … I wasn’t expecting an orgy scene. Nervous titters erupted from the audience on opening night during the hottest tableau and a naughty part of me (that part deep down that occasionally channels a morbidly obese Scottish guardsman by the name of Fat Bastard) wanted to shout out, in a thick Scottish brogue …“That’s dead sexy that is!”

Sexy as it may be however this is high art and Scarlet has created an amazing ballet for this co-production with the Texas Ballet Theater where it will play next year.

Queensland Ballet choreographer Liam Scarlett. Picture: AAP Image/Renae Droop

Aesthetically speaking it’s an enormously rich experience with sumptuous sets and costumes by Tracy Grant Lord whose visuals are somewhat cinematic. Then there’s brilliant lighting by Kendall Smith, music by Camille Saint-Saens arranged by Martin Yates for our very own Camerata, Queensland’s own chamber orchestra, led by Brendan Joyce under the baton of Nigel Gaynor. The music is nothing short of sublime and it is played so beautifully that if you weren’t so busy gasping at the raunchiness you would be moved to tears.

So you’re sitting there at QPAC in Brisbane, watching a world premiere by our own state ballet company (one of the best in the world) and you’re watching our dancers and listening to music played by our musicians and you realise that this is just as good as anything you’ll see in London, Paris, New York or anywhere else.

Queensland Ballet Dangerous Liaisons

Now if you’re wondering what the whole thing is about and why it’s so sexy, well, it’s set in the French aristocratic class before they all got their heads chopped off. They were a randy bunch, spoilt rotten, and they had nothing better to do than play around and I’m not talking about golf.

This is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil (Laura Hidalgo on opening night) and the Vicomte Sebastian de Valmont (Alexander Idaszak), two rivals and ex-lovers who use seduction as a weapon to socially control and exploit others.

Liam Scarlet and Queensland Ballet's production of Dangerous Liaisons at The Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane.

They enjoy cruel games and boast about their conquests and generally behave quite disgracefully. And we get to watch.

This is a very theatrical ballet with some brilliant performances and you will see several casts over the next couple of weeks and included in those casts is Queensland Ballet’s own Janette Mulligan, one of Queensland’s greatest ballet stars (she hails from Townsville) who had a brilliant international career before coming home. It’s a joy to watch her gliding across the stage again as Madame de Rosemonde, Valmont’s aunt.

Laura Hidalgo and Alexander Idaszak in Liam Scarlett and Queensland Ballet's production of Dangerous Liaisons.

As for the stars, well, Alexander Idaszak has such composure and presence that he commands the stage whenever he appears. And Laura Hidalgo, well, she is beyond amazing and is nothing short of an elite athlete as well as being a ballerina.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this world first although I did get the urge at one stage to rush up on stage and throw a bucket of cold water over them all. Luckily I didn't.