THE timing could not be better for a revival of Christopher Hampton's darkly comic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, just as it chimed with the times when premiered in 1985.

"Hampton had first wanted to do his adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos's novel ten years earlier than he did, before he had to go through so many hoops, " recalls Paul Toy, director of next week's production by the York Settlement Players.

"It ended up coming out exactly at the time of Thatcherism, a time when cruelty became not only a national pastime but a national duty.

"Now we're at the end of the Blair tenure, and we have a feeling of ennui as his government draws to its close."

Choderlos de Laclos's scandalous novel was written just before the French Revolution, another time of imminent change, and depicts two decadent, letter-writing aristocrats with too much time and ink on their hands as they plan to corrupt two innocent women for pleasure and revenge.

"The Vicomte Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil are disgraceful people, but they're so attractive that you spend your time rooting for them, as they do the things you'd like to do but never dare to, " says Paul.

"The book and the film version are much more moral, but in this play Merteuil gets away with it much more, although I suppose the great morality element now is that we have the knowledge of what was to come for these decadent people in the French Revolution and so morality is built into our response."

Rob Wright, who takes the role of Valmont in his Settlement debut, adds his own thought. "One thing that does help is that the morality of our age can be compared with the morality of that time, whereas they couldn't make that comparison with the 19th century. The decadence of Valmont's age feels uncomfortably redolent of our times, " says Rob, a medieval history academic who has performed previously with the Lords Of Misrule.

Explaining why he selected Rob as Valmont, Paul says: "Valmont is an interesting part to cast as he has to be attractive and sexy, he has to have an effect on all these women and he also has to seduce the audience. He needs to be of an age where he has the experience in order to seduce a young woman.

"Rob's experience in medieval verse theatre, putting things over in maybe an unfamiliar language, is useful too. Although it is contemporary language, it has an 18th century structure."

Rob smiles at the thought of playing Valmont.

"I don't think you have to look too far to find the attraction for playing him, " he says. "It is the ultimate gift for an actor and you'd have to wait a long time to find something as appealing as this.

The ladies, the costumes, the language, the sexuality, all of it! Get into the mindset of someone who thinks like Valmont, and it's the ultimate gift, isn't it?"

York Settlement Players, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, March 13 to 17. Performances: 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 613000 or on line at www.ridinglights.org