Review: TR[IA]L, White Bear Theatre

In a scene that feels straight out of Severance, a woman wakes in a sterile room with no memory of how she’s arrived. A disembodied voice greets her over an intercom. A camera watches her every move. The opening sequence on Severance was one of the best on television, and here, the effect is just as compelling.

For TR[IA]L, the White Bear Theatre is transformed into a clinical research facility run by ClearMind, an organisation conducting human trials on memory loss and cognitive deterioration, but, as we soon discover, all is not what it seems.

Most of the action in Mercy Brewer‘s script centres on Subject X, played by Freya Popplewell, who spends her days trapped in a tiny isolated space with little more than books, games, and a chess set for company. She plays chess against herself over and over again, bored out of her mind. Macsen Brown, as Supervisor Y, checks in on her daily and attempts to soothe her concerns with a goofy, bumbling charm and disarming kindness. He assures her she’ll get all the support she needs. Yet something doesn’t feel quite right. The premise starts strong and there’s a gnawing curiosity about what goes on behind the doors of the room. Instead, the first half languishes in a very slow build, with monotonous daily check-ins from Y that don’t go anywhere. 

Sam Bell’s sound design and lighting do the heavy lifting throughout, adding tension and helping scenes transition seamlessly, keeping the energy up. The set design (Rory Clarke) is clever, making effective use of the White Bear’s limited space with hanging white drapes. Yet the design wizardry cannot save the repetitive nature in the first half of the piece, until the twist arrives. 

When Subject X discovers who she really is, she takes matters into her own hands, quite literally. It’s not often that a stage prop comes hurtling at you, but the shock is effective. It’s here, unfortunately, that the drama essentially ends. While I had hoped to see more of X and get a sense of who she becomes as a character, we’re suddenly transported to a scene with a newly introduced character. Supervisor Y and the new character passionately debate the ethics of his research. When we begin to get a glimpse of who Supervisor Y really is behind his kindly persona and the action starts to escalate, the play concludes. 

There is never a sense that we get to know these characters as actual people. While the script does attempt to subvert tropes towards the end, they feel like science fiction archetypes or stock figures for most part. The script, however, is ripe for deeper exploration, though perhaps more suitably in a medium like television, where there’s room to unpack both character arcs and the moral dilemmas of the AI age, than a fringe production.  

TR[IA]L is a timely piece of science fiction that provides a chilling look at our future. While the production boasts a high-concept plot, sharp production design, and a clever twist, a stronger focus on character might heighten its emotional impact.

Written by Mercy Brewer
Directed by Fiona Popplewell
roduced by Macsen Brown for Stuck in the Basement Productions
Technical Design by Sam Bell
Set Design by Rory Clarke

TR[IA]L plays at the White Bear Theatre from until Saturday 18 April.