SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
When a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.
When a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.
WHY THIS SHOW?
Our selection of Jennifer Haley's The Nether for the winter season reflects the careful and intentional approach we take when choosing work for our students and audiences. Haley's award-winning play, recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play, is a tensioned and fiercely intelligent piece of contemporary drama that asks urgent questions about identity, ethics, and accountability as our lives migrate increasingly into virtual spaces. As sensory experience in digital environments grows ever more convincing, The Nether presses us to consider whether actions taken in virtual worlds carry real-world moral weight, a question that feels more pressing now than ever.
For our students, the play offers exciting challenges across the program: actors must navigate complex characterization and morally difficult roles; production and design students encounter a range of scenographic demands that oscillate between the real and virtual worlds; and dramaturgy students wrestle with a play-text that rewards critical inquiry. Paired with our fall Shakespeare comedy, The Nether extends the range of genre, form, and production demands we aim to explore each academic year.
We believe our audiences will find the questions Haley raises about privacy, desire, consent, and the boundaries of the permissible to be deeply relevant to the communities we live in and the digital worlds we are all building together.
WHY THIS SHOW?
Our selection of Jennifer Haley's The Nether for the winter season reflects the careful and intentional approach we take when choosing work for our students and audiences. Haley's award-winning play, recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play, is a tensioned and fiercely intelligent piece of contemporary drama that asks urgent questions about identity, ethics, and accountability as our lives migrate increasingly into virtual spaces. As sensory experience in digital environments grows ever more convincing, The Nether presses us to consider whether actions taken in virtual worlds carry real-world moral weight, a question that feels more pressing now than ever.
For our students, the play offers exciting challenges across the program: actors must navigate complex characterization and morally difficult roles; production and design students encounter a range of scenographic demands that oscillate between the real and virtual worlds; and dramaturgy students wrestle with a play-text that rewards critical inquiry. Paired with our fall Shakespeare comedy, The Nether extends the range of genre, form, and production demands we aim to explore each academic year.
We believe our audiences will find the questions Haley raises about privacy, desire, consent, and the boundaries of the permissible to be deeply relevant to the communities we live in and the digital worlds we are all building together.
We acknowledge that this theatre and the university that holds it stand on the traditional territories of the Attawandaron (also known as the Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is in Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract, land promised in 1784 by the British Crown to the Haudenosaunee of the Grand River in recognition of their alliance during the American Revolution.
This territory, which includes six miles on either side of the Grand River, is governed by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, an agreement that teaches that the land is a shared dish from which we all eat, and that we carry collective responsibilities: to take only what we need, to ensure there is enough for others, and to keep the dish clean for those who come after us. It is an agreement rooted in care, reciprocity, and stewardship.
Gathering here in this theatre, on this land, within this agreement, means recognizing that welcome comes with responsibility. It asks us to consider how we move through shared spaces, how we care for one another, and how the systems we build shape access, safety, and belonging as equal partners.
We acknowledge that this theatre and the university that holds it stand on the traditional territories of the Attawandaron (also known as the Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is in Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract, land promised in 1784 by the British Crown to the Haudenosaunee of the Grand River in recognition of their alliance during the American Revolution.
This territory, which includes six miles on either side of the Grand River, is governed by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, an agreement that teaches that the land is a shared dish from which we all eat, and that we carry collective responsibilities: to take only what we need, to ensure there is enough for others, and to keep the dish clean for those who come after us. It is an agreement rooted in care, reciprocity, and stewardship.
Gathering here in this theatre, on this land, within this agreement, means recognizing that welcome comes with responsibility. It asks us to consider how we move through shared spaces, how we care for one another, and how the systems we build shape access, safety, and belonging as equal partners.
