THEATER REVIEW ‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’ : Thrill of the Chase : Play about the dalliances of aristocrats in pre-revolutionary France concentrates on character rather than juicy plot twists.

The liaisons depicted in Christopher Hampton’s play are dangerous indeed, perhaps more so for the performers than for the characters they portray. With its titillating theme of 18th-Century French aristocrats in slavish pursuit of sexual conquests, coasting on the juicy intricacies of plot is a great temptation.

It’s easy to be seduced by the play’s cleverness--the erotic complexities unfold with clockwork precision in the inevitable coils of its tight construction.

But for all its steamy artifice, Hampton never fills the hollow core of his characters. “We’re as cold as we are superficial,” is an accurate self-appraisal from the Vicomte de Valmont. It’s up to the actors to supply the human interest. Otherwise we’re just looking at elegant lab specimens.

The Santa Barbara City College Theatre Group production recognizes the danger, chases that elusive human quality and comes close to achieving it. Very close.

Certainly director Rick Mokler has hit a bull’s-eye where Hampton’s equation of sex with armed combat is concerned. In the central sparring between onetime lovers--the libidinous Valmont and the devious Marquise de Merteuil--their relationship is now one of mutual delight in the conspiracies of hot pursuit, the more destructive the better.

But as the marquise points out, “Card sharps sit at different tables,” and the tension of rivalry undercuts their alliance until the ultimate declaration of war.

Valmont is played by Mark Ciglar, fresh from his title role in PCPA’s summer production of “Dracula.” Ciglar has a flair for gaunt, decadent, bloodsucking aristocrats. His Valmont is every inch the handsome predator who “never opens his mouth without an eye for the damage he can do.”

Although the production maintains a politely reigned-in treatment of the rampant sexuality, Ciglar supplies some highly charged erotic moments, particularly in his seduction of a young girl (Andrea Anderson) fresh from the convent. In a few well-paced minutes, he has transformed her from reluctant novice into willing creature.

In another scene of unabashed sensuality, he pens a letter of undying devotion to his next intended victim on the back of his favorite courtesan (Brandy Smothers).

But as it turns out, the latest target of his amorous intrigues (Kimberly Olson) has evoked something more than the thrill of conquest. “I’ve got to have her so I can pass all these feelings along to her and be rid of them,” he declares in frustration. And although we readily believe his annoyance at his feelings, Ciglar never quite reaches the full implication of their threat to his life of selfish dissipation. Without the sense of Valmont as a man deeply in conflict with himself over the discovery of love, we have no window to his human side, and therefore no involvement in his fate.

As for the marquise, Margaret-Erin Easley is suitably venomous on occasion but never manages to be convincingly malicious to the core. To be fair, the playwright gives her little to work with in the way of a focused motive, settling for the facile abstraction of a bitter victim of male-dominated pre- revolutionary French society without bothering to establish a personal dramatic context for her.

The mortal combat between these serpentine purebreds is impressively framed in the expansive Garvin Theatre, Santa Barbara’s best stage venue. Charles Thomson Garey’s set and lighting designs accommodate the action in arcing segments of rich wood paneling. It is something of a departure from the creamy gauze of past productions, but it helps reinforce the sense of aimless opulence in which these aristocrats have absolutely nothing better to do with their time.

By the time this one’s over, it’s all we can do to keep from calling out ‘ Vive la Revolution !’ ”

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at the Garvin Theatre in Santa Barbara, through Nov. 16. Tickets are $12 to $14. For reservations or information, call (805) 965-5935.