The Nether: Theater review by David Cote
Excuse me for not getting too excited for a play about the Internet. Actors jabbing at dead keyboards; staring wild-eyed at invisible, downstage monitors; or worse, having emotional breakdowns in virtual-reality goggles. Thankfully, none of these elements appear in Jennifer Haley’s initially cool, eventually hokey The Nether, a techno fable-thriller about the moral corruption of online life.
Words you won’t hear in Haley’s taut, terse script: browser, website or domain name; Internet appears once, as an obsolete term. In her future scenario, people log in to the Nether and waste their lives playing make-believe in custom-built "realms." One such e-topia is the Hideaway, a Victorian manse where pedophiles meet sexually forthright children before murdering them with an ax. Hideaway owner Sims (Frank Wood) is called in by Nether investigator Morris (a likable but squishy and tentative Merritt Wever) on charges of solicitation and rape—but is it a crime if it’s only online? Is the Nether a therapeutic release valve or a goad to offline atrocities?
Director Anne Kauffman does her usual excellent job of setting a lucid, menacing tone, and the cast (including an excellent Peter Friedman as a wretched Hideaway addict) imbues the underwritten script with complexity. Art about technology can date faster than tech itself, so this twisty allegory on mind-versus-body duality might enjoy a longer shelf life.—David Cote
Lucille Lortel Theatre (see Off Broadway). By Jennifer Haley. Directed by Anne Kauffman. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 15mins. No intermission.