“Jennifer Haley’s SF Play The Nether offers complete freedom - a new virtual wonderland providing total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. An intricate crime drama and a haunting thriller set in the year 2050, The Nether follows an investigation into the complicated, disturbing morality of identity in the digital world, and explores the consequences of making dreams a reality.”
“THE FUTURE. THE INTERNET has transformed into a virtual reality world where you can live out your every fantasy in complete anonymity. Identities are blurred, dreams real, and culpability seemingly nonexistent. This is the world of Jennifer Haley’s play The Nether, which premiered at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2013 after winning the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
A crime drama and sci-fi thriller, The Nether, like much of Haley’s work, explores the moral and psychological implications of human relationships in an increasingly technological age. Unlike many writers, Haley does not see technology as antagonistic to art or human connection. For her, the possibilities of technology — and of theater — are as boundless as our imaginations.” - Miranda Rizzolo, Los Angeles Review of Books
Following a sold-out run at the London’s Royal Court Theatre, Jennifer Haley’s critically-acclaimed, multi-award-winning play „The Nether” transfered to London’s Duke of York’s Theatre for a limited 12-week run.
Director : Jeremy Herrin, original cast members Amanda Hale (Morris), Stanley Townsend (Sims) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Woodnut) are joined by Zoe Brough and Isabella Pappas who will alternate the role of Iris as they did at the Royal Court. Set designs are by Es Devlin, with costume designs by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Paul Pyant, compositions by Nick Powell, sound by Ian Dickinson and video design by Luke Halls.
“The Nether“, winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, opened at the Royal Court Theatre in July 2014 where it played to sell-out audiences. Jennifer Haley’s play received its world premiere in Spring 2013 produced by the Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles and won her an Ovation Award for Best Original Play and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Writing.
“TheNether : A new virtual wonderland provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every whim. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers a dark battle over technology and human desire. Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether is both serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams. For more information, visit thenetherplay.com.”
„A hit in London, where it recently opened for a West End run after its debut last summer at the Royal Court Theater, “The Nether” stirred debate among critics there…
“The Nether” is as smart as it is unsettling. Jennifer Haley, a Los Angeles writer who specializes in the ethics of technology, has partly fashioned her script as a debate on what constitutes crime in a world of relative realities.
It’s a gray, gray tomorrow that greets us in “The Nether,” Jennifer Haley’s very cunning and equally creepy new play about alternative lives in a future around the corner.
“The Nether” isn’t a play for the ages.
Its appeal is that of a crafty short story with lurid topical resonance.
Imagine an episode of “Law & Order: SVU,” written by a futurist fiction writer like Ray Bradbury or Iain Banks. But as a parable for where we’re headed on that big old highway in the digital sky, “The Nether” exerts a viselike grip, while taking you down avenues of thought you probably haven’t traveled yet. After the show, you will probably not feel like turning on your computer or smartphone. You may, though, feel an overwhelming urge to take a shower.” – Ben Brantley, New York Times
“The Nether”‘s Productions:
February 2015
West End transfer of production by Royal Court Theatre and Headlong
directed by Jeremy Herrin
produced by Sonia Friedman
February 2015
MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York NY
directed by Anne Kauffman
July 2014
Royal Court Theatre and Headlong, London UK
directed by Jeremy Herrin
March 2013
Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles CA
directed by Neel Keller
“We’ve been talking about communication and technology, but somehow at the core of who we are as people — and the core of our imaginations — is this need to tell stories. And as long as that need is there, I don’t think theater will ever go away.” - Jennifer Haley
Jennifer Haley is an award-winning American playwright whose work delves into ethics in virtual reality and the impact of technology on our human relationships, identity, and desire.
She grew up in San Antonio, Texas and now lives in Los Angeles.
Her play, “The Nether”, was staged by Center Theatre Group in March 2013, at the Royal Court Theatre in July 2014, and at the MCC Theater in February 2015. It won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and seven Los Angeles Ovation Awards. In January 2015, the Royal Court production transferred to the West End.
Haley has worked with Center Theatre Group, the Royal Court Theatre, the Humana Festival of New American Plays, American Conservatory Theater, Theater 150, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, The Banff Centre, Sundance Theatre Lab, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lark Play Development Center, Sacred Fools Theatre, PlayPenn, Page 73, and the MacDowell Colony. She is a member of New Dramatists and the founder of LA’s Playwrights Union.
In addition to her work for the theatre, Haley writes for the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove.
Works
“Breadcrumbs”
“The Nether”
“Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom”
“They Call Her Froggy”
“Sustainable Living”
“Dreampuffs of War”
“The Butcher’s Daughter”
Jennifer Haley won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Nether, which premiered in spring 2013 at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. The production also garnered her an Ovation Award for Best Original Play and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Writing.
Jennifer’s other plays include Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, which premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville 2008 Humana Festival, Froggy, in development with The Banff Centre and American Conservatory Theater, and Sustainable Living, featured at the 2012 Ojai Playwrights Conference.
Jennifer’s plays have been developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lark Play Development Center, PlayPenn, Page 73, and the MacDowell Colony. She is a member of New Dramatists in New York City and lives in Los Angeles, where she founded a writing collective called the Playwrights Union.
http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/thenether
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150617-how-is-porn-changing-society