The Nether...

Last night Stuart and I went to see The Nether at The Duke of York's Theatre in London's glitzy West End.

I have to say we were rather disappointed.

The Nether = a future version of the internet where it is almost photo realistic and you can go online to indulge your wildest fantasies as avatars. In this case the fantasies seem to be all about child abuse and murder.

I'm not quite sure why the author suggests that given no law enforcement or repercussions offline then people's base instincts will make them want to molest and murder children online. Or indeed whether it is better for society if a child molester is kept online committing virtual crimes rather than allowed to roam the real world committing real ones. Surely it's sickness that needs therapy.

Anyway... technically the play was great - think The Matrix. And the acting was fine too. Even the plot supplied a couple of nice twists but the subject matter was a misstep I feel. There is an interesting discussion to be had about how we live our lives online and the digital personalities we create through social media but this play was rather like a paedophilic version of Godwin's Law. By resorting to child molestation the message was lost in the medium.