‘The Nether’ Is a Puzzling Virtual Whodunit

Dimonte Henning and Steve Koehler in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Nether by Jennifer Haley. Photo by Ross Zentner.

Renaissance Theaterworks has proven itself a forward-looking company. So on the surface it seems commendable that it is one of the first to tackle the full weight – and frightening morality — of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in a stage play.

The production is providing an overly heady mix of both meaning and warning as we plunge into The Nether darkness realm where imagination and avatars (those virtual representatives of real personas) signal a freedom unrestrained by traditional ethical concerns. It is also a world where money, power and technology leave us all distressed about who is in control of human behavior.

Ethics is a core concern of playwright Jennifer Haley in The Nether. She creates a sort of whodunit mixture of a virtual “hideaway” (a cardboard cottage on a rotating platform, fronted by a bucolic garden swing) while in the upfront space stagehands and actors frequently clatter together an interrogation chamber – where is the Hideaway’s dark web server located? And just who is hunting for it?

Here inquisitor Laura Gray as Morris (perhaps a sometimes avatar herself) grills the adults who create or occupy the Hideaway. There they more safely chat with children (or grownups pretending to be children), have sex with them or even brutally chop their heads off (no actual violence onstage), while the older adults defend this as simply role playing, a place where their imaginations and fantasies can run wild. Much of the play is criticism of these attitudes or a paradoxical vindication of that mental freedom.

It is not a plot easy to explain, and the presentation doesn’t always help. Everyone has at least a double identity as the 90-minute storyline bounces back and forth, with Haley trying too hard to make every conversation a mini revelation followed by a sudden blackout. The main characters tend to declaim their defenses or scream their feelings when subtleties are called for.

A talented director as well as local actress, Elyse Edelman, seems hard put to find a uniform reality, virtual or otherwise, in a production with strong technical elements (nice scenic design by Doug Dion, lighting pools from Colin Gawronski). Being early to raise the moral specters of virtual reality is an important idea, but both playwright and director seemed consumed by the contradictions of this world, hardly providing a pathway for the audience.

The best acting found a naturalistic basic – notably Dimonte Henning in a role that includes villainous and heroic elements. Also faring well is the high school age participant playfully and chillingly embodying the compliant child. She may in the script be the youthful avatar of a dirty old man, but she carries much of the plot as a major character openly discussing her central place in this virtual world as a sex object and emotional target. The main part here is Iris, who bounces playfully in and out of the Hideaway (played well on opening night by Josie Van Slyke, who alternates in the part with Zoah Hirano).

Besides Gray, veteran actors in the production include Steve Koehler as the strident, defiant Papa figure Sims who created the Hideaway, and C. Michael Wright as the troubled but deceptive frequent visitor, Doyle. But in their highly energized behavior and tendency to yell and pose, they succumb to acting generalities while the audience is seeking specifics to like or hate. The production is designed to make us think about the dangerous future, but we come away more annoyed than enlightened.

The Nether occupies the Next Act Theater (the new home for the Renaissance company) through February 2 at 255 S. Water St. Details at https://rtwmke.org/shows/the-nether/

The Nether Gallery

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Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here.