Cruel Intentions. Royal and Derngate theatre, Northampton.
This musical take on the iconic 1999 film is like taking a step straight back into the 90s. Similarly to the film, it isn’t your typical high-school teen drama. Instead, it’s based on the deviousness that was Parisian high society featured in Les Dangereuses from almost 200 years earlier, placing it straight into an elite New York school in the 1990s.
Sinister step siblings, Kathryn Merteuil (Nic Myers) and Sebastian Valmont (Will Callan) use their classmates in order to seek revenge. Kathryn wants Sebastian to seduce Cecile Caldwell (Lucy Carter) in order to get back her ex-boyfriend whereas Sebastian wants to change Annette Hargrove (Abbie Budden) following her magazine article about chastity before marriage. The pair create a wager on the outcome: she wins, she gets the keys to his car; he wins, he gets to sleep with Kathryn.
Its nastiness in particular is what contributes to its on-stage success alongside its soundtrack full of 90s tunes. In fact, the soundtrack deserves an honourable mention as not only was it full of iconic songs that each and every audience member sang along to, but it was also crucial in telling the story reflecting the inner thoughts of the characters.
The priority of this show is very clearly to have fun- and the actors do exactly that. A mix of sass, swagger, humour and undeniable bitchiness from each cast member makes for a great show which I would happily see again.
Cruel Intentions continues to run at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate until Saturday 22nd March and I highly recommend giving it a watch if you fancy a blast from the past.
Production photos. Pamela Raith
