By Alex Kramer
Being confronted with a deeply challenging topic often causes the mind to shut down and retreat into a realm in which logic is ultimately usurped by emotion. One new play seeks to call into question the audience’s response when faced with the darker facets of the human condition.
Launching a battle for the moralistic part of the brain, The Nether will open at Public Space One, 120 N. Dubuque St., at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Set in the future, the plot is centered on a new, highly advanced kind of virtual reality developed by the dual-character of Sime/Papa, both portrayed by Matthew Brewbaker. The first scene introduces Detective Morris (Jessica Wilson) as she brings in two people for questioning. From there, she accuses Brewbaker’s character of hosting a site for pedophiles in the virtual-reality realm.
Wilson said her character acts like a gateway into this haunting world, enabling the audience, as the play progresses, to discover more and more through the detective’s eye.
“This is one of the more topical and contemporary plays that I’ve done,” Wilson said. “I understand how relevant it is to be asking such moralistic questions.”
The play is poised to both upset and question the audience’s immediate reaction, and the piece’s dark, thought-provoking subject matter contributes to its intrigue.
Brewbaker said his character views his actions — the creation of a virtual community for pedophiles — as an attempt to create a safe place for him to grapple with urges that are deemed socially inappropriate. Crucially, there appears to be a sense of awareness that his actions are unacceptable, and, as such, the play forces the audience to engage with his humanity rather than just his fatal flaws.
“This would have to be the character that’s probably the most difficult to make sympathetic,” Brewbaker said. “At times, based on the writing, you are meant to understand his perspective, [whereas] usually, you’re just a cut-and-dried bad guy.”
In The Nether, black and white aren’t so easily discerned. Director Rachael Lindhart said the arguments for and against the virtual-reality site intermingle.
“[The character Sime/Papa] maintains that people should be free in their imagination,” she said. “They’re not hurting anyone because they’re in a place that is not real. However, the things they do in that reality are pretty lurid.”
Morris counters by asserting that in doing these things, even in a false reality, beliefs — along with personalities and other aspects of a person’s life — begin to be shaped: in the end, a crime is still a crime, even if the immediate repercussions are somewhat hidden.
“It’s very even-handed,” Lindhart said. “There are reasons to agree with the man with this pornographic site and reasons to believe the detective.”
To maintain this even-keeled sensibility, Lindhart directed the play so that audiences only see what the playwright had intended. She said the play’s staff tried to take as much of the play at face value as possible, so as to shield audience from some of the imagined affronting facts and images.
“We certainly believe that within this virtual reality’s world, several things are happening but we don’t actually see them,” she said. “It’s like a Greek play. We find out later that it happened. In a way, that’s helpful, and in a way, it’s even more frightening than if we did see them. We mentally fill in [what happened] between scenes.”
Despite the gravity of the subject matter, Brewbaker encourages people to let their perspective be questioned while watching the play.
“Live theater is a form that I think works best [for the subject] because it’s much more intimate,” he said. “I know that sometimes people want to go to theater for escapism, but it’s important that live theater can also pose some very uncomfortable questions.”