Eighteenth-century games of love, lust and betrayal are currently heating up the Huntington Theatre as the Boston company stages Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." As cast member Alice Duffy - who plays Madame de Rosemonde - sees it, however, the story isn't just a period piece that played out in the Parisian bedrooms and salons of the 1780s.

"It's set in the 18th century, but it's really a universal story about immoral, amoral, hedonistic people who are participants in their own destruction," explained Duffy by telephone recently from her Hingham home. "At one point my character says it surprises her how little things change. And I think she is right."

One of the things that doesn't change is the kindly woman's devotion to her nephew, the rakish Vicomte de Valmont, played by television and film actor Michael T. Weiss, who partners with a former flame to seduce her former lover's bride-to-be in this adaptation of the original novel by Choderlos de Laclos.

"My character is a counter-balance to all the wickedness around her. She's just a nice old lady. Madame loves her nephew who is this handsome, dashing, lecherous, immoral and amoral man with great charm. She looks for the good in him, however, because she is his protector. Madame is a great lady and a very wealthy woman who never had any children of her own. She has been very close to her nephew since his infancy. She loves him dearly and, as such, is willing to turn a blind eye on occasion. Madame is not stupid. She is just a realist," says Duffy, 77, who has previously appeared at the Huntington in "A Month in the Country," "Dead End," and "Heartbreak House." "She well understands the libertine nature of the society in which she lives."

That society was first described in the novel published in 1782 which Hampton adapted for a 1987 Broadway production starring Alan Rickman. The following year, Hampton adapted his play for the Academy Award-winning film version starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keanu Reeves, and Uma Thurman. Helping the Huntington convey its own highly stylized and stylish view of that society is a team led by director Daniel Goldstein, set designer James Noone, costume designer Erin Chainani, composer Loren Toolajian who provides an original score, and a cast of 10. Creative teams may alter the look of the piece, but the story remains the same.

"This is a complicated play about some very wicked people who ultimately get what they deserve. Goodness knows, we live in a naughty world. We always have," says Duffy. "There really isn't anything too strange about what these characters are doing. Every generation has these sorts of people."

"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is being presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through February 5. For tickets and information, call 617-266-0800 or visit www.huntingtontheatre.org