"Christopher Hampton's brilliant adaptation...gives a pitiless and searching portrait of the erotic diversions of aristocrats in putrescent pre-revolutionary France." --"Daily Telegraph" "Hampton's achievement is to have preserved the satanic magnetism of the twin conspirators while going all out for social comedy. But this is comedy of the highest theatrical kind: edged with danger, replete with pain and forever reminding us that lives are being ruined with the flick of a well-turned phrase." --"Guardian"

Christopher Hampton was born in the Azores in 1946. He wrote his first play, When Did You Last See My Mother? at the age of eighteen. Since then, his plays have included The Philanthropist, Savages, Tales from Hollywood, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, White Chameleon and The Talking Cure. He has translated plays by Ibsen, Moliere, von Horvath, Chekhov and Yasmina Reza (including Art and Life x 3). His television work includes adaptations of The History Man and Hotel du Lac. His screenplays include The Honorary Consul, The Good Father, Dangerous Liaisons, Mary Reilly, Total Eclipse, The Quiet American, Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina, the last three of which he also directed, and most recently A Dangerous Method, based on his play The Talking Cure.