Jan 24 2025 to Jan 25 2025 7:30 p.m.

Price: 500 Book/Buy

Where

Ranga Shankara

36/2, 8th Cross Rd, R K Colony, 2nd Phase, J. P. Nagar 560078

Event Description

Synopsis

The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. The internet has evolved into the Nether, a vast network of virtual reality realms. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. The users discover they have made emotional attachments in his realm that blind them to the greater questions of ethical behavior, both in the imagination and the outside world.

Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.

Contains Graphic Descriptions of Violence and Exploitation of Minors.

playwright Jennifer Haley

director Mohit Takalkar

cast

Neil Bhoopalam

Rytasha Rathore

Vivek Madan

Prajesh Kashyap

Anjali Negi

sceneography Saras Kumar Namdeo, Sarthak Narula

light design Vikrant Thakar, Rahul Joglekar

costume design Shilpi Agarwal

music Saurabh Bhalerao

sound design Anita Kushwaha

assistant directors Chirag, Mallika, Hrishikesh, Suyog

publicity design Tushar Tajane

production manager Abhinav Jeurkar

lights assistance Yash Potnis

sound assistance Laukik Shetye

team NETHER Himanshu, Abhinay, Bhaskar, Namrata, Rajiv, Shubham, Hemant, Kiran, Om

stills Vishal Magar, Manasi Gadkari

publicity videos Meiosis Media

sound design studio Whistling Woods International

SUPPORTED BY Nikhil Mahajan, Anita Kushwaha, Aviral Sharma, Jitendra Joshi

special thanks Irawati Karnik, Akarsh Khurana, Kumar, TCT Workspace (The Company Theatre), Pradeep Vaiddya (The Box), Team White Copper

Director`s Note

As I delve into Jennifer Haley`s haunting and deeply unsettling play, I am struck by the way it lays bare the darkest corners of the human psyche. The Nether is a world of meticulous control and elegance, but beneath the perfect facade lurks a horror beyond comprehension.

It has made me ponder upon two eminent themes of the play; whether Love could in fact be the strongest force known to humankind? And should the meaning of the word ‘consequence’ have meant something as simple as just a sequence of events? Has the unpredictable nature of our beings forced us to give it meaning? What is it about the word ‘consequence’ that dominates us into becoming who we are?

My challenge is to be able to compliment Haley’s compelling text by drawing the audience into the immersive world of the Nether, to create the allure of its promise and the chill of its ultimate revelation. The one that a reader immediately feels upon reading The Nether.

Visualizing this has been an exercise, tuning into my imagination’s deepest corners as through the text, the play’s design unassumingly evokes an artificiality that hints at an unnatural rift beneath its surface. As the play progresses, the seams of a perfect world begin to fray, revealing the rot of desire and complicity that binds the characters together.

The characters are both captivating and terrifying, and their perfect beings mask a monstrous longing within. Here’s where I believe Haley stands with a mirror to society.

Control and submission, desire and disgust create a tightrope walk for an actor, between enchantment and repulsion. The rehearsal process will focus on building a deep sense of ensemble, through multiple workshops and a residency for the actors to delve into the complex motivations and backstories that drive their characters` actions. The Nether challenges us to confront the darkest possibilities of our own desires, and the horrifying directions our technology-driven culture may be heading in. It is a play that shakes and disturbs us, forcing us to question the true cost of our longing for escape and control. And then there’s that force that we call Love.