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Ogden • "Just because it's virtual doesn't mean it isn't real," Sims says to Det. Morris early in Jennifer Haley's provocative new play "The Nether," making its regional debut at Good Company Theatre in a production that has mixed success.

He is talking about his website the Hideaway, a Victorian mansion that conveys clients to "an era associated with innocence" and "a return to a simpler time." There they interact with Iris, a precocious young girl, and satisfy deep, dark desires. Morris is investigating the site to determine if it is pornographic.

Haley is fascinated with exploring that point where virtual and real worlds collide. In a previous play, "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom," the video games that teenagers are playing invade an affluent subdivision. "The Nether" won the American Theatre Critics Association's Primus Prize two years ago and is a current popular choice for regional theaters.

The play is set in a future time when the Internet has become the Nether, a compelling and complete environment where people can cross over and become shades. Sims calls it "our contextual framework for being." He admits that his site attracts potential pedophiles and that he also has those tendencies, but he asserts that by providing "an opportunity to live outside consequences," he offers what Doyle, the Hideaway's chief visitor, calls "broken people" a safe outlet to satisfy their needs. Would Morris rather have them out on the street?

"The Nether" asks penetrating questions about personal choice and how far people should be free to explore "the world of our imagination." Doyle says the Hideaway enables visitors to "interact outside our bodies," but Woodnut, whom Morris sends to investigate the site, says the promised freedom is an illusion; Sims virtually controls everything. Even though Iris tells Woodnut, "It's OK to forget who you think you are and discover who you might be," she also says, "Nothing here really changes."

Staging "The Nether" is an ambitious project for Good Company, and some elements of this production work better than others. The theater's small space presents a problem. The play's scenes are short and counterpoint what's happening in the interrogation room and the Hideaway, and the constant shifts back and forth are distracting and interrupt the flow. Also the Hideaway is both seductive and sinister, and we need to get a strong visual sense of it to feel that tension. Unfortunately, there's no room to create a detailed set. Projected images might have helped.

The performances are also uneven. The biggest challenge is finding a young actor to play Iris. Riley Allen is lively and charming, and she looks like a Victorian doll come to life in the elegant dress Catherine Zublin has designed for her, but Iris can also be knowing and manipulative, and Allen misses those moments. Jake T. Holt's Sims switches smoothly between wily entrepreneur and aggrieved victim, and Allen Smith is confident and calculating as Woodnut, but Paul Naylor's Doyle is so distraught and nervous that you can hardly understand him. Alicia Washington gives the strongest performance; her Morris transitions touchingly from assertive adversary to conflicted and uncertain.

Director Nicole Finney effectively orchestrates intensity within individual scenes, and Zublin and lighting designer William Peterson sharply contrast the play's two worlds: stark, somber reality and the mellow, nostalgic atmosphere of the Hideaway.

"The Nether" poses timely moral questions about the impact of virtual reality on our lives. Like many tools, the Internet has vast benefits but also the potential to damage or destroy. It's all a matter of choice. As Morris says, "The world is still the place we have to learn to be." —

Into 'The Nether'

Although it doesn't always work, Good Company Theatre's production of "The Nether" is a timely and compelling portrait of what happens when virtual and real worlds collide.

When • Reviewed Oct. 7; plays Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with 4 p.m. matinees on Sundays through Oct. 23

Where • Good Company Theatre, upstairs at 260 Historic 25th St., Ogden

Tickets • $17; http://www.goodcotheatre.com; contains adult language and situations

Running time • 80 minutes (no intermission)