The modern era finds contemporary culture moving deeper and deeper into a postmodern information society. As everything becomes information, culture rushes to try to understand the nature of reality on a fundamental level. Renaissance Theaterworks explores some of the implications of the modern age with a production of Jennifer Haley’s Nether. The sci-fi drama concerns a certain stretch of virtual reality that is being used for satiating unacceptable desires that would be completely criminal in the “real” world beyond the VR. Laura Gray conjures a great deal of intensity as Morris--a woman who is investigating a portion of shared VR space known as “The Nether.” There’s a particularly dark corner of that space that is ruled over by a man known to participants as “Papa.” Morris is searching for the truth behind a world in which participants pretend to be adults and children engaging in sexual relations. Haley explores metaphysical topics that have been pretty extensively explored in science fiction for well over half a century or more. There may not be a whole lot that The Nether is doing thematically that hasn’t been explored pretty extensively before in other places over the years, but there IS something quite refreshingly engrossing and unsettling about seeing these topics explored in an intimate iive theatre space. Steve Koehler is deeply complex as the man known as Papa who has been hauled-in for questioning regarding his world and the people who spend time there. C. Michael Wright plays to an almost fearless degree of complexity I the heart of human desire as a nearly retired school teacher who is engaged in "Papa's" world in The Nether. . Director Elyse Edelman has cleverly brought together all of the complexity in a cast that also includes a pair of teen actresses who take turns playing the schoolgirl avatar for Wright’s character. Josie Van Slake was particularly impressive opening night as she played a girl with a deep intellect and deeper desires that could not be met in the fading face of a dying world. Scenic Designer Doug Dion has put together a rather ingeniously fluid set that still manages to lock-in the full reality of a virtual world that the script insists is vividly real. Haley gives any production of the play a great deal of challenge in moving back and forth from a cold interrogation room to a warm and sensual realm based out of an idyllic past. A vast rotating set in the background moves with grace and poise in the periphery of a stage brilliantly painted with luminous color by Lighting Designer Colin Gawronski. Haley’s script is deliciously complex with a lot of moving parts around the edges of the main action. Edelman does a brilliant job of working with the cast to vividly bring-out all of the provocative complexity of one of the best plays to hit a local small stage all season. Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Nether runs through February 2 at Next Act’s theatre space on 255 S Water St. For more information, visit Renaissance online.
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ERIC
1/13/2025 05:43:44 pm
MELODY THOMAS SCOTT FROM THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS FAVOURITE SHOW KIDZBOP
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