THE NETHER at New Mexico Actors Lab

As entertainment industry strikes fueled by worries about artificial intelligence drag on and ChatGPT generates both essays and angst in academia, the New Mexico Actors Lab production of Jennifer Haley’s THE NETHER couldn’t be timelier: The sci-fi crime drama set in the near future delves into the ethics of virtual reality and the impact of technology on human relationships, identity, and desire.  Zoe Lesser, making her debut with NMAL, will direct Nicholas Ballas, Rikki Carroll, Gregory J. Fields, Joey Beth Gilbert, and Rod Harrison in NMAL’s fourth production of the 2023 season, which opens on Thursday, October 19 and runs through Sunday, October 29.  Evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday performances begin at 2 p.m. adn 6 p.m. A talkback session will be held after the show on Sunday, October 22.

All performances will be held at NMAL’s permanent home, the Lab Theater, located at 1213 Parkway Drive in Santa Fe – one block from Meow Wolf. Tickets are now on sale at the NMAL website, www.nmactorslab.com or at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/NMActorsLab/6585. Individual tickets are $35. Students, as well as workers in the food and beverage industry and in theater, receive a $15 discounted rate. 

“The Nether” is a virtual reality that provides total sensory immersion where users can log in, choose an identity and indulge their every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing form of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. According to The New York Times, the play is “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.”

Lesser states, “Diving into this brilliantly crafted play with this dream cast has been a gift. The play presents moral quandaries that, even after teasing and unraveling, remain gray and murky. Every day I am thrilled by the challenges, ideas, questions, and solutions the cast brings to the table."

Playwright Haley won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Los Angeles Ovation Award and was nominated for the Olivier Best New Play Award for The Nether, which premiered at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles in 2013.

WARNING: Depictions of physical and sexual violence against minors. Audience members under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.