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December 11 2:14 PM2015

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BWW Review: Actor's Bridge Ensemble's THENETHER

Leave it to the ambitious and creative people of Nashville's Actors Bridge Ensemble to continue the celebration of thecompany's 20th anniversary season with the presentation of a new and compelling play - The Nether by JenniferHaley - which ushers audiences into the dystopian, virtual world that has evolved into something closer to reality in thenot-too-distant future. It's an intriguing choice, to be sure, and one which could be fraught with failure and pretensionwere it not for the superb production concept and vision of director/producer Jessika Malone, given the wherewithal byABE producing artistic director and co-founder Vali Forrister to challenge audiences in every way possible and toupend all conventional thought with a production that continues to haunt me almost a week after seeing it.

Malone and Forrister, who with their other ABE compatriots continue to push the theatrical envelope in Nashville withtheir bold and illuminating choices, ensure that The Nether is presented in an immersive atmosphere which heightensthe play's cerebral yet totally inclusive tone and which ensures the play will continue to be talked about for months -perhaps even years - to come. Malone's taut and focused direction of her five-member ensemble (which includes anelectrifying performance by Forrister) brings the play to life with dramatic intensity that is underscored by the physicaltrappings of the production.

With this production, ABE inaugurates its new home at The Darkhorse Chapel (which seems the perfect symbiosis ofa pair of iconic Nashville theatrical entities) and, in doing so, crafts the perfect setting for The Nether, which takes itsaudiences down a heretofore unexamined rabbit hole of nefarious and rather dirty derring-do that emerges from thedarkest corners of the imagination. Playwright Haley creates a world in her script that is not difficult to comprehend norto fathom; rather, it resides just outside the lines of a life led within the constraints of polite society.

Since its inception, the internet (which in Haley'sfuturistic vision has become known as TheNether) has provided its users and denizens therelative comfort of obscurity with its cloak ofinvisibility, allowing them to access their deepest,darkest desires while continuing to show theworld a far different identity. Ergo, a middle-agedman can pretend to be a pre-pubescent girl,indulging his sexual whims and closeted delightsas he diddles, has dalliances and otherwise givesvoice to his barely concealed proclivities.

While that provides The Nether with its base ofoperations, if you will, it's neither fictional norfanciful. Rather, it's the result of untethered

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BWW Review: Actor's Bridge Ensemble's THE NETHER http://www.broadwayworld.com/nashville/article/BWW-Revie...

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exploration made possible by that aforementioned cloak of invisibility that allows anyone, everyone, to be thecharacter they wish to be in the confines of that mysterious world found somewhere in the ether.

But in the world created by Haley, society has evolved to the point that individuals can create new lives for themselvesin this otherworldly setting - to the point that society now finds a need to police the activities of those who have left thereal world, as it were, to indulge themselves via their onscreen avatars in the secret settings that have been createdfor the express purpose of experiencing that which heretofore has been limited because of laws and a sense ofcommon decency and decorum.

Haley's play centers on the investigation of acertain Mr. Sims (impressively played with theright amount of bombast and restraint by RodneyPickel), who has created a pseudo-Victorianworld in which pedophiles can indulge in sexualadventures with their chosen types, safe fromcivil and criminal law and societal mores.Detective Morris (Forrister, in yet another superbperformance, shows off her skills to perfectionwhile reminding audiences how bereft they havebeen due to her onstage absences - give usmore Vali onstage, please) conducts herinvestigation of Sims and his perhaps horrifyingcreation in order to determine what motivates himand his followers.

We meet the play's other characters - a 60-something teacher who is a devotee of Sims' world (which is just aroundthe corner from the bucolic worlds created by people who find themselves fascinated by the The Sims), played with asense of forlorn grace by Phil Perry, in a performance that is courageous in its total lack of guile; Woodnut, a detectivewho has infiltrated the world in order to determine the pervasiveness of Sims' depravity (Bralyn Stokes in a perfectlycalibrated performance that become ever more apparent as the story unfolds before you); and young, winsome Iris,the manipulative object of desire who sets the mystery into motion with her all-knowing sensibilities that belie heryouth and her creator's parameters for her character. Iris is played by one of Nashville's most notable young actors -Robin August Fritsch, who delivers a star-making turn in her role that requires her to be wise beyond her years in away that is even more disturbing than you may at first comprehend. Fritsch's beguiling demeanor results in aperformance that actors of far more varied and experienced backgrounds could rightfully envy.

It's a discomfiting process that takes place in anuncomfortable setting that's all the more unsettling due to thealmost claustrophobic confines in which the audience gainsadmission into this underground world of repression, repulsionand sexual deviance. Are you titillated or turned off by whatyou're seeing and hearing from Haley's well-definedcharacters? Would you be more at ease if you were peeringinto this nether world of sexuality and intrigue if you weresitting alone in a darkened room of your own choosing? TheNether poses all these questions and more, many of whichare sure to challenge the viewer's thoughts of what is right,what is wrong, and what lives in the no-man's-land betweenthe two.

Even at the conclusion of Haley's fast-moving (thanks toMalone's exquisite direction) 80-minute play, you are likely tobe uncertain about what you have just seen and, more to thepoint, how you feel about what you have just seen. But like thevery best of theater, The Nether is compelling, transportingyou to another time and place in which you will confront ideasand issues that you may have nurtured within your own heartand soul, unbeknownst to those closest to you. Beforewarned: Once the door is closed, and you have beenwarned to keep your feet inside the lines, the countdownbegins to when you can once again regain your freedom - beit your freedom to move, to speak, to think. You will find yourself controlled in unforeseen ways as The Nether playsout and you are unlikely to shrug off the constraints until you've been able to completely decompress.

For the audience, the experience begins immediately upon entry into The Darkhorse Chapel, transformed by scenicdesigner Mitch Massaro and lighting designer Richard K. Davis into Café Limbo, an internet café in which eachaudience member is given credentials to gain online access to the immersive experience that is The Nether. Greetedby staff members Cassie Hamilton, Eric Ventress, Lexi Nimmo and James Sperring - who vacillate between graciousand welcoming hosts to threatening and oppressive tour guides depending upon what suits the moment best - you arethrust into this vividly imagined, but not so far-fetched, setting in which the Simses of the world are given free rein to

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bring their fantasies to life. Hilary Frames' costumes are stunning, giving each character the proper garments in whichto conduct their online lives in the simple and thoroughly evocative world designed by Massaro, which is beautifully litby Davis' extraordinary vision.

The Nether. By Jennifer Haley. Directed by Jessika Malone. Presented by Actors Bridge Ensemble at TheDarkhorse Chapel, Nashville. Through December 13. Running time: 80 minutes, with no intermission. Fordetails, go to www.actorsbridge.org.

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Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee formore than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for hiscoverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee OnstageMonthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is thefounder/executive producer of The First Night Honors - the history of which can be traced to 1989 and the firstpresentation of The First Night Awards - which honor outstanding theater artisans from Tennessee in recognition oftheir lifetime achievements and also includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors recognition.Midwinter's First Night honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. An accomplished

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BWW Review: Actor's Bridge Ensemble's THE NETHER http://www.broadwayworld.com/nashville/article/BWW-Revie...

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director, Ellis helmed productions of La CageAux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo andAn American Daughter, all in their Nashvillepremieres, as well as award-winningproductions of Damn Yankees, Company,Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show. Ellis

was recognized by The Tennessean as best director of amusical for both Company and Rocky Horror. In 2015, hedirected William Inge's Picnic for Circle Players and JasonRobert Brown's The Last Five Years for VWA Theatricals,with The Larry Keeton Theatre's production of BethHenley's The Miss Firecracker Contest set for spring2016.

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