Harvey Powers Theatre hosted the fall play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos de Lacios. Directed by Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson, the play took place Oct. 20- 23 and was attended by many students, faculty, and community members.

According to the Facebook page event description, the play was centered on the Marquise de Merteuil, a wealthy widow, and her former lover, the Vicomte de Valmont. Throughout the play, the two main characters enjoy challenging each other in games of cruelty and seduction.

The two main characters’ usage of seduction as a means of socially controlling and exploiting others. Many playwrights view their manipulative nature as a reference to French aristocracy before the French Revolution.

The set was constructed to emphasize these themes of lust, seduction, and desire.  “If you noticed each character’s’ outfit was a single pure color that corresponded to [his or her] personality: red for passion, blue for tranquility and peace, green for lust. The set was black and white to really bring out the colors of the characters, both physically and metaphorically,” costume designer Olivia Langa ’18 said.

“It was a really valuable experience to learn safe intimacy practices for the stage. I’ll definitely be using these methods as a director, and hopefully they’ll become an industry standard with my generation of theatre artists,” Casey Venema ’18 said.