Photos: Waterbury Playhouse Presents THE NETHER

Waterbury Festival Playhouse is known for doing shows that are intense and that you'll talk about for hours after you've seen them. Jennifer Haley's, The Nether, is just such a show, a cunning yet creepy play about the not too distant future. Haley, a Los Angeles writer who specializes in the ethics of technology, has created an intricate drama and a haunting thriller set in what may be the near future that makes us question what constitutes crime in a world of relative realities. The Internet has morphed into the Nether and as her characters spend more time in the Nether than they do in "real life", the distinction between the real world and the virtual realm begins to blur.

The show opens in a bleak interrogation room, where we find Detective Morris leading an investigation into the complicated, disturbing morality of identity in the digital world. Morris is questioning Sims, the proprietor of the Hideaway, an elegant 19th century world of its own where men can fulfill their sexual and romantic fantasies as avatars in this virtual wonderland. Just login, choose an identity and explore your every desire. Some Hideaway customers become so addicted to the place that they want to live there forever.

The Nether will make you uncomfortable as it explores the consequences of making dreams a reality. Does it help if we know that the young object of a desire isn't real but an avatar of a presumably consenting adult? That question feeds into other, bigger questions that are posed, implicitly and explicitly, by "The Nether," which is as smart as it is unsettling.

Directed by Melissa Lourie, Artistic Director of the Middlebury Actor's Workshop.

This show marks the 12th season at Waterbury Festival Playhouse. The Nether is an intense adult show with very mature themes. As a courtesy to the cast and fellow audience members children under high school age will NOT be ADMITTED.

A Preview performance (all seats $15.00) will be held on Thursday, 8/9. Regular performances are Friday, 8/10 - Saturday, 8/11, Thursday 8/16 - Saturday 8/18, and Thursday 8/23 - Saturday, 8/25. A special Talk Back Session will be held after the show on Thursday, 8/16.

Tickets for all shows are $30.00 in advance (with many discounts), $35.00 at the door (no discounts). No handling fees or surcharges. Shows begin at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.WaterburyFestivalPlayhouse.com or by phone at 802-498-3755.