REVIEW: The Nether, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭

The Nether. Photo: Johan Persson The Nether Royal Court Theatre August 5, 2014 3 Stars Es Devlin's set for Jennifer Haley's play, The Nether, now having its European premiere at the Royal Court (a co-production with Headlong) under direction from Jeremy Herrin is really quite extraordinary and, of itself, well worth seeing.

It is a set which reflects, absolutely and beguilingly, the issues the play addresses: the seduction of technology; the blankness and deception the virtual world offers; the possibilities of perfect escape; the ever present possibility of surveillance and misunderstanding; the ceaseless blending of the real world with the world inside the internet.

Additionally, it plays on the fairy tale/fable aspects of the narrative: like the Wizard of Oz, the real world is basically black and white; the virtual reality of the constructed world inside the connected computer cosmos, like Oz, is ablaze with realer-than-real colour and texture.

There are trees, levels, stark dystopian interrogation rooms - and all encased in what could be a computer screen. It's spiffingly clever, thrillingly and tantalisingly enticing. And the video projections from Luke Halls are intricate and fiendishly seductive.

It is difficult to imagine a better physical production of this play. Jeremy Herrin's vision here is quite remarkable.

Haley's play is interesting enough but it is not much of a thriller (the twists are obvious) and it does not have that much to say which is new, if anything.

It certainly raises issues about what happens in the ever extending world of the internet and looks at serious questions about identity, both in the real world and in the virtual one, and it does that through the premise of an investigation into wrong-doing of the worst kind - paedophilia.

It plays on the reality that most people have an online presence and don't really consider the consequences, if any, of that life. You might post a comment on a website, but what happens when people respond to it? How do you really trust anyone you meet on the internet? Is there any reality to virtual friendships or hook-ups? Should there be better regulation of the internet? Should you be prevented from creating other identities in the virtual horizons? And if there are restrictions, what are the consequences for the real world of those restrictions?

These are important, vital matters and Haley's play hits them head on.

But Herrin's production has one curious shortcoming: casting. No one in the cast is really ideal for the role he or she plays. Everyone gets by, but with better casting the play might have soared in ways it doesn't here.

It's not that the actors are bad - they are not. Each acquits himself or herself well enough; it's not that. It is more that the person they are, physically and in the manner of playing, is not quite right. Stanley Townsend needs to be more inherently charming, affable and unlikely as a predator. David Beames needs more clarity, more assurance, more defiance as the Professor who wants to live a virtual life. Amanda Hale needs more astringency, more sharpness, more stern conviction as the investigator with a moral certainty about virtual regulation.

Because each of their real world characters must function in a particular prism in order for the twists and turns of the play to work to optimum effect and to allow the performances of Ivanno Jeremiah (Woodnut) and Zoe Brough (Iris) to shine in counterpoint.

At ninety minutes, it's worthwhile time in the theatre. But better casting would have resulted in an experience that might have matched Es Devlin's extraordinary set.