It was the lure of portraying Merteuil, with her star-making potential, that drew the relatively little-known actress to the prestigious company.

Valmont's equally destructive in the course of his life, but I think the audience can take that much more easily.'ДЄlthough Duncan's resume shows a wide variety of roles in smaller British theaters, she has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company only two years. 'I do believe that it is harder, even now, for people to take that freedom, that brazen wickedness, from a woman. Which is not to say a character that evokes widespread sympathy. Over the months of playing Merteuil, the greatest change has been her growing confidence in the role, Duncan said.Д®arly in the run, she said, she was not able to explore the humor in her lines, but now her Merteuil is a warmer, more relaxed character. It's absolutely selfish.'Дuncan has been playing the role since September 1985, when Hampton's adaptation had its premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Company's tiny Other Space at Stratford. 'She is concerned with survival, survival at any price. 'It would be inexact to say that she's a feminist, because she's not building anything for other women,' Duncan said. Not the slightest dent mars her emotional armor.

'She knows that to fall in love is to be vulnerable and she's not the type to be vulnerable.' It is Valmont who eventually shows his vulnerability while the manipulative Merteuil gloats over her successes. 'She and Valmont mock love all the time,' Duncan said. Valmont's seduction of her will spoil the marriage prospects. One of Merteuil's numerous lovers has left her and plans to marry Cecile. Merteuil's motivation in persuading him to bed Cecile is more substantial. Together they plot Valmont's simultaneous seductions of Madame de Tourvel, a young but proper wife whose husband is away, and Cecile, a convent-reared teen-ager.

Dangerous liaisons broadway cecile