The only things Michael Crichton didn’t envision in 1973 with
his dark, sci-fi take on Disney (Frontier/Tomorrow Land) were the internet and
virtual reality. WESTWORLD introduced us to a violent theme park with a gun
slinging cyborg behind every swinging saloon door. Unfortunately, malfunctions
turned the robots against the paying “cowboy” customers… not unlike the velociraptors
in JURASIC PARK
The 2017-18 television version of WESTWORLD blurs the
distinctions between humans and androids, so much so that villains can be
either. Jennifer Haley’s THE NETHER (@ Flat Earth through June 23rd)
explores the “deep world,” as in “deep state,” at the thinner edges of the
internet (known in centuries to come as the nether). These are secret realms
most internet users don’t know even exist.
Like WESTWORLD, Haley’s “hideaway” locale allows customers to
indulge their vilest fantasies without consequence, and in person. Haley offers
up “Papa’s Realm,” where guests (we observe only men) pay to meet, fondle, even
murder a precocious little girl (no little boys) who looks like Alice in
Wonderland… an apt choice as Charles Dodgson, A.K.A. Lewis Carroll, loved to
surround himself with little girls, taking pictures of them, reading stories to
them. Evidently Papa caters only to men. Not to worry, the child tells them,
she reanimates immediately after she’s hacked to bits.
In addition to toying with this child, one can, if one is
weary of this world, reincarnate (without the carnal component), that is, cross
over and take over the little girl’s spirit, thereby existing forever. This is
where the police come in. They’d like to eliminate Papa and his malignant
operation. Director Sarah Gazdowicz has a first rate cast, led by Regine Vital
as the sharp detective who dogs Papa and his customers. Bob Mussett is
frighteningly creepy as the cold, elegant, Victorian Papa who glibly confesses
he is cursed with “both an obsession and insight.” Julia Talbot plays the child
just unaware enough to be innocent and knowing at the same time.
Jeff Gill plays the spent man with the weight of the world on
his shoulders, ready to sign on with Papa no matter the consequences, a
character we can (sort of) identify with. Arthur Gomez plays an under cover cop
who may be enjoying the dark side too much. I couldn’t say because I ran out of
steam, trying to put this all together when I really didn’t want any part of
it. I know children are abused. Plays that tell us about abuse are preaching to
the converted. The abusers aren’t going to the theater. And if they are, they
are not being transformed. WESTWORLD is the same as THE NETHER or PILLOWMAN to
me.
We’re watching it play out on the nightly news, for heaven’s
sake. Our government is kidnapping thousands of children, ripping them away
from loving parents, and all we do is protest at the State House and march
ourselves to Washington
