Confession time: I’ve never seen HBO’s Big Little Lies.
Oh, sure, I’m a fan of Nicole Kidman and I’d heard some pretty good buzz about the series, but its been a while since I sunk my teeth into a soap opera. If you don’t count the myriad superhero shows which are basically soap operas where fight scenes replace the sex and betrayal, that is.
When the opportunity to check out an immersive pop-up — New Coast Power — that Play Collaborative Arts had been commissioned by HBO Home Entertainment to put together came up I accepted somewhat begrudgingly. I knew that director Cole Rosner had drafted talent cast members and a few folks whose acting chops I was curious about, but how good could a piece that was put together from scratch in three weeks be?
Upon arrival at Santa Monica’s The Victorian even more questions hit: just what were we going to be experiencing? A piece inspired by the Jean-Marc Valley/David E. Kelly series that was scheduled for… two-plus hours? How the heck were they going to entertain us for that long?
By the time we were half way through the evening those questions had faded. All I wanted to know was whether or not Bill Rodgers was in a coma, dead, or fled to Miami. Was Tammie sleeping with Bill? With Bob? Fabienne? Everybody? Had Jion sold Bob out to work with Bill? Would Pete and Corwin win the dance contest?
THESE WERE THE QUESTIONS THAT MATTERED.
Let’s roll back.
The series, according to the back of the Blu-Ray that everyone received as they were leaving (that’s a disclosure, and I pay for HBO Now, so it’s a push), is a “darkly comedic drama that weaves a tale of murder and mischief as it explores society’s myth of perfection.”
With that tone as the jumping point the assembled audience members — a mix of bloggers, HBO execs, and others who aren’t your usual SoCal immersive theatre going types — were cast as members of the New Coast Home Owners Association on the opening night of the new community Clubhouse. We were there to get tours of the new facility, and be hit up for big checks for HOA President Bill Rodgers’ dream of a Children’s Reading Room and Youth Program.
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In other words: just about the most affluent suburban fantasia you could imagine. As this was a launch party, the spread was ridiculous, befitting the theme. But just when we thought the traditional needs of an industry event might overshadow any immersive shenanigans after a curtain speech from Bob Huffman (Thaddeus Shafer) and Kristine Myer-Huffman (Brittney Rentschler) a bloodcurdling scream from Tammie (Deanna Noe) let us know that the game was afoot.
Bill Rodgers had fallen ill, and our pleasant tour of the clubhouse turned into a unfolding narrative. First stop was the main hall, where a touch of escape room chaos set in as the three groups we were divided into (around 25 people each) set upon a series of printed out emails (!!) and handwritten notes.
We scurried about gathering backstory clues as members of the cast picked off audience members for scene setting one-on-ones. If escape rooms weren’t a thing I’m not sure this sequence would have worked, so thank the maker for the explosion of that form over the last two years. Everyone just went for it. (Or went for the bar.)
Then it was go-time: each tour group was taken off to see a set-piece before the grand rotation began. The show used the “dark ride” structure of looping scenes encountered in a non-linear order for the bulk of the running time, punctuated by viscerally engaging dance sequences starring Jazz Elise and Anthony Velazquez that could sustain a full show on their own. The length and tone of the scenes varied, with the track that I was on starting slow and then picking up momentum as secrets were revealed and even darker secrets were hinted at.
Bill Rodgers, it seems, isn’t just a bad boy: he’s a despicable man whom everyone can’t help but be transfixed by. Harry Lime as an the head of an HOA. But the missing Bill isn’t the only wayward soul in New Coast. The chart of who is sleeping with whom is one messy Venn diagram, with affairs bleeding into polycules and back again. Because yes: you can still get ridiculously jealous if the lover you share with your wife is in love with your best friend and business partner.
Ahhhhhh, soap opera. I’d forgotten that I missed you so.
It all came back at the end for a gloriously melodramatic denouement that had the audience gasping and shouting the occasional murder accusation.
It was fascinating to see this kind of work with people who a) didn’t pay and b) aren’t used to this kind of thing. While there was some obvious reluctance on the part of some audience members the vat majority seemed to get into — maybe a little too into-the action. The free flowing booze certainly helped. This was a party after all.
If this had been the premiere of New Coast Power, I’d have notes a go-go: a better frame for the audience needs to be set in order to tamp down on the talkback without ruining the joy of being there to shout at the soap characters. Maybe we’d need to water down the drinks. There are things that would need polishing and shaving.
As a one-off event it is nothing short of a bloody triumph. This year the immersive work in LA has been good across the board but heavy, almost oppressively so. For two and a half hours Cole Rosner and HBO transported us to a place where everyone’s problems were so much bigger — and so much pettier — than ours. A joyful Bacchanal that let our domestic shadows play out our most selfish impulses for a while.
Now that I’ve had a taste of New Coast, I’m ready to dig into the show. More than that: can somebody please produce a show like this we can send those who don’t think they’d ever enjoy immersive theatre to because it is too “arty” or “genre” or whatever excuse they have?
This was such a blast.
Big Little Lies is available on Blu-Ray and DVD now, along with the soundtrack. The event was hosted by HBO Home Entertainment and produced and developed by Play Collaborative Arts Venue.
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