A box is presented.  It’s too soon.  A man and a woman shout over each other: contradictions.  The audience stands around the pool table and the band has stopped: “We should have waited.” “We did” echoes. What does it mean? A box is left in the centre of the pool table. What’s inside?  Go and see Idle Lies.

A fine pastiche of physical theatre, dance, theatre of cruelty, and anachronistic period drama, Idle Lies by Sydney-based collective Doll pARTS disappoints nobody.  A band provides atmospheric sometimes narrative-based music while the audience drinks their “libations” as the host suggests.  The audience chats.  They are having fun and then the lights flicker and out of the walls come a cast of actors and dramas without explanation – and just enough storyline.  Each scene is a jigsaw to be put together.  More action occurs off stage than on but you have the feeling while you drink away in merriment between scenes that the very walls ooze the stories untold of the twisted family.  It’s raw and it’s cool.  This piece reminds you to keep living your life through it, simultaneously telling you that it will live through you. 

And the box was left in the centre of the pool table when it ended and people had to find out what was in it.  Doll pARTS was raw.

SEAN MARONY

THE MUSIC

http://themusic.com.au/arts/reviews/2015/03/31/idle-lies-sean-maroney/

While site-specific, immersive theatre is a well-established theatrical genre in places like New York and London, it’s relatively young here in Sydney, so it was exciting to see a company break traditional theatrical conventions and take a risk. 

As we followed the characters around the bar and even out on to the terrace, the story of the highly dysfunctional Idle family unfolded before us. It was a very physical, stylised piece, with everything from kisses in corners to brawls on pool tables clearly choreographed. We watched a fight on the terrace through the window, and were spectators of a raunchy dance taking place in an atrium next to the bar. The elimination of words pinpointed the focus solely on the physical, and it was very effective.

THEATRE MATTERS

http://www.theatrematters.com.au/blog/review-idle-lies

Erin Brookhouse’s Idle Lies is a multidisciplinary exploration of performance that attempts to redefine the experience of theatre.The show is not about story as much as it is about experimenting with the relationship between artist and audience, and about unpacking the complex meanings of space in life and in the theatre. Brookhouse has an interesting vision to share.

SUZY GOES SEE

http://suzygoessee.com/2015/03/25/review-idle-lies-doll-parts/