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Forestillingsprogram for Den Nationale Scenes produksjon Underlandet (2016). pdf April 16, 2016 Download

The Nether

The Nether (2016) is a theatre production by The National Stage. Performed under the Norwegian title Underlandet, it is the Norwegian premiere of Jennifer Haley's play. The production is performed at the main stage of the theatre, Store Scene.

Victoria H. Meirik directs it.

Information

(Objekt ID 53186)
Object type Production
Premiere April 16, 2016
Produced by The National Stage
Based on The Nether by Jennifer Haley
Audience Adults, Youth
Language Norwegian
Keywords Theatre, Science fiction, Crime
Running period April 16, 2016  
Duration 1,5 hours, no interval
Website Den Nationale Scene
More

At the website of The National Stage the following, among other things, is written about The Nether:

"The Nether offers full freedom, a fairytaleland online where all dreams can be fulfilled - without consequences. Just log in, choose your identity and explore the possibilities!

In this spine-tingling, fascinating story we meet the investigator Morris (Siren Jørgensen). She goes all in, in revealing what really happens in the unreal beautiful hidden garden a steadily increasing number accesses via servers. In the virtual reality The Nether, Sims/Papa (Bjørn Wilberg Andersen) has created a wonderful, but scary hiding-place, in which an increasing number of people lives out hidden sides. But can one be punished for one's fantasies, and is virtual love real love?

With this, The National Stage presents the Norwegian premiere of the prize-awarded play The Nether. Audience and press in London called it 'brilliant', 'involving' and 'extremely fascinating'.
We, real people in contemporary society, live increasingly digital lives, and the time in which we are fully offline may soon be over. More than 500 million humans daily play computer games, and the hours we spend in virtual landscapes only grow. But what happens when technology makes the virtual world more beautiful and more tempting than reality? Are we responsible for the moral choices we make in a digital world - and are we ourselves?"

SOURCES:

The National Stage, dns.no, 17.02.2016,  http://www.dns.no/program/2016/underlandet/

Import from the Scenekunst.no list of openings 17.02.2016

Performance dates
April 16, 2016 18:00 – Store Scene, The National Stage National premiere, Norway
Press coverage

Lillian Bikset, I form og innhold er Underlandet teater på tvers av virkelighetsnivåer (literally: In form and content, The Nether is theatre across reality levels), Dagbladet April 22 2016:

"The Nether is part science fiction fable, part cyber mystery, but mostly it is moral-philosophical idea theatre. The investigation itself is, to Morris and the production, lower on the agenda than the discussion of boundaries in virtual lived life. Where, when, how does the internet's freedom of thought cross into the internet's control of thought? Should the life of the imagination be made into a commercial product? Should separate laws be valid in a space where natural laws are invalid? The text has a tendency to over-explain its lines of thinking, and despite for the fact that the actors give their characters emotionally complex expressions, the productions is at times in danger of becoming more of a staged discussion than a live drama. But at the same time, these are discussions with high temperature and high relevance in contemporary society. Outside of the theatre, these discussions are yet to reach their final conclusions, and Meirik doesn't fall for the temptation to give too final conclusions in her theatre production either."