The Nether
by Jennifer Haley
Directed by Elyse Edelman
Renaissance TheatreWorks
Next Act Theatre
January 12th - February 2nd, 2025
Production Team:
Scenic Design: Doug Dion
Costume Design: Karin Kopischke
Lighting Design: Colin Gawronski
Sound Design: Brandon Reed
About The Play
“The Nether” by Jennifer Haley is a tense, thought-provoking play set in a near-future world where the internet has evolved into a immersive virtual reality called, “The Nether.” It feels and looks just like reality, but people can be whoever they choose to be. The play opens with the interrogation of Mr. Simms, a.k.a. “Papa”. Papa is arrested for creating a realm within the Nether called, “The Hideaway” - a beautiful place that imitates Victorian era nostalgia, and a home away from home for pedophiles to (virtually) act out their desires, “without consequences.
We flash forwards and backwards between cold, black scenes of interrogation in the offline world and bright, childlike scenes of wonder in the virtual Hideaway world. We discover Mr. Simms’ complex motive for creating the Hideaway, meet Mr. Doyle, a tortured witness, Mr. Woodnut, a curious—but hesitant—new guest, Detective Morris, who harbours a dark secret on her own, and the charming Iris, a virtual little girl.
In a world where you can indulge in any desire and be whoever you want, is their a line you can’t cross? Can Detective Morris uncover the dark underbelly of The Nether?
There are three times in the play where detective Morris questions Doyle where she reads a report one of her detectives made while exploring, “The Hideaway” inside of “The Nether.” Each one describes the events that occurred in the prior scene, so I have the regular whoosh into electrical sound transition back to reality, but when we emerge on the other side with Morris, we go into a musical underscore for when she reads the report. Giving the feeling of unearthing something sinister and tragic.
Tapping In
Detective Morris discovers that Iris is actually Doyle’s avatar and he works in, “The Hideaway,” as her. We hear the underscore from her reading the reports to help convey a sense of sincerity and mystery as she manages to convince him that they should log into “The Nether,” to collect evidence that they need to convict Sims. They “tap in” together into the virtual reality using their glasses, which I created using an electrical white noise layered with a whoosh. At the same time I’m fading in some electrical layers of noise while we hear the birds and wind hitting leaves in trees. As we arrive, the electrical noise fades away leaving just the outdoor soundscape.
Photos taken courtesy of Ross Zentner
Speaking with our director Elyse, we wanted the audience from the moment they walk into the theatre to feel like they are fully immersed. Like we were logging into virtual reality and the audience was in the holding area. “Creating their avatar,” so to speak. Then once the moment the play begins we officially “login into the world of the play.” We also wanted the two worlds of the play, reality and “The Nether” to feel like two aurally different worlds. Each with their own unique sonic textures, but as the play progresses they combine and play on top of each other. What is real and what is virtual reality?
For the real world, we are primarily in the Interrogation room where the reporter is questioning those she suspects are the people working “The Hideaway.” I decided to aim for reality to have a more harsher and electrical based quality. The characters continue to be stressed and at high stakes for the entire story so I wanted it to feel like the Internet or “The Nether” was constantly calling out to them.
For “The Nether” or our virtual world, I actually used Victorian instrumentation with a darker piano sound layered with a bit of violin and cello at times. I aimed for a more melancholic and somber tone for their music to highlight the themes of “The Hideaway.” It also features soundscapes when they are outside of the home, but does occasionally have an odd sonic texture or two to highlight that we aren’t in reality.
As the play progresses the two sonic textures blend. As we go from reality to virtual, it starts electrical and then turns acoustic, and vice versa as we go back. However, we start to blend real world sounds on top of the electrical and even acoustic instrumentation. We can’t tell what’s real or what is virtual by the end.
Top Of Show
From the moment the audience walks in we wanted them to feel immersed and like they were in a “holding area” in the virtual world. Like they were creating their custom avatar to explore, “The Nether.” We have three different sonic layers to convey an emotionless, but digital and liminal soundscape. Occasionally you can hear the laughter of Iris one of the children working at “The Hideaway.” Once we are ready Iris gives us our curtain speech. As the speech finishes her voice starts to glitch out and the virtual world starts to build into a cacophony of sound that takes us into the world of the play. We hear a toy box version of Iris’s waltz that I composed. We watch her dance before we get sucked away back to the interrogation room for the first scene.
The Sound Design
Transitions
Here are a couple transitions of us moving back and forth into reality and the virtual world. Reality is marked with a lot of harsh and electronic noise, while when we transition into The Hideaway, we have actual acoustical instrumentation that I composed using classical instruments. At this point we haven’t meld the two worlds, just jumping back and forth.
Reporter Underscore
Iris Waltz - Gramophone
Iris has a waltz that she does with Woodnut but musically is referenced throughout the show. You hear it at the top in a more dark and softer version (listen to the first example), and hear is the full version where they dance in Act 2. First we have the transition from reality back to the virtual world, but when we emerge, you hear the full version of the waltz, but as the scene begins it fades down to being on the gramaphone as they dance together.
Freeze Cake
At one point when we are in the “hideaway,” Sim and Iris are relaxing outside and talking about life. They talk about how the mention and idea of celebrating someone’s birthday inside of the “hideaway” is forbidden because it ruins the illusion of their avatar not being a little girl. However, in a later scene outside, Sims makes it up to Iris by giving her a freezing cake that never melts. I decided that it needed an odd otherworldly sonic element to it. I created this synth patch that has a frozen or cold crackling quality to it. Iris describes it as, “the sound of freezing and unfreezing,” and this is my interpretation of that.