Mohit Takalkar brings acclaimed new English play to city
The Nether was produced off-Broadway by MCC Theatre and in London by Headlong Theatre and Royal Court Theatre, transferring with Sonia Friedman Productions to the West End at the Duke of York’s Theatre
Pune-based chef-turned-theatre director and founder of Aasakta, a theatre troupe – Mohit Takalkar – will bring his acclaimed new English play, The Nether, to The Box, Pune, on March 22, 2025 after travelling to Mumbai and Bengaluru. The Nether is a play about a dystopian future where the internet has become an all-encompassing virtual reality. Written by American playwright, Jennifer Haley, The Nether, premiered with Centre Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles and won the Ovation Award for ‘Best New Play’. The Nether was produced off-Broadway by MCC Theatre and in London by Headlong Theatre and Royal Court Theatre, transferring with Sonia Friedman Productions to the West End at the Duke of York’s Theatre. The Nether has since been produced in 28 countries and translated into 19 languages, and is currently running at the Berliner Ensemble.
Elaborating on the play, Takalkar said, “What attracted me to this play was the way it lays bare the darkest corners of the human psyche. The Nether is a world of meticulous control and elegance, but beneath the perfect facade lurks a horror beyond comprehension. It has made me ponder upon two eminent themes of the play; whether love could in fact be the strongest force known to humankind? And should the word ‘consequence’ have meant something as simple as a sequence of events? Has the unpredictable nature of our being forced us to give it meaning? What is it about the word ‘consequence’ that dominates us into becoming who we are?”
Takalkar, who is known for bringing experimental plays to the city, said that one of the challenges was to be able to complement Haley’s compelling text by drawing the audience into the immersive world of The Nether, to create the allure of its promise and the chill of its ultimate revelation. He said that visualising this play has been an exercise in evoking an artificiality that hints at an unnatural rift beneath its surface. “For as the play progresses, the seams of a perfect world begin to fray, revealing the rot of desire and complicity that binds the characters together,” Takalkar said.
“I believe Haley holds a mirror to society. Control and submission, desire and disgust create a tightrope walk for an actor, between enchantment and repulsion. The Nether challenges us to confront the darkest possibilities of our own desires, and the horrifying directions our technology-driven culture may be heading in. It is a play that shakes and disturbs us, forcing us to question the true cost of our longing for escape and control,” Takalkar said.
This year, the city will also see a collaboration for an English play Love and Information written by Caryl Churchill and produced by NCPA, Mumbai and directed by Mohit Takalkar; and a Marathi play Joyride directed by Suyog Deshpande which is the Marathi adaptation of German playwright Lutz Huebner’s Respect in addition to The Nether.
