Tr[ia]l - White Bear Theatre

TR(IA)L, written by Mercy Brewer, directed by Fiona Popplewell, and running at the White Bear Theatre until 18th April, is an intriguing and thought-provoking play that attempts to examine the contentious issues of medical ethics and the effects on the human condition of increasingly sophisticated emerging technological advances.

At first glance, the premise appears simple. A woman (referred to only as “subject X”) wakes in a sterile, empty room with only a few bottles of water next to her mattress.

A disembodied voice greets her via an intercom, before physically joining her and introducing himself as her Supervisor (known only as “Y”), who explains why she is there, and what is going to happen.

X is informed that she has consented to a clinical trial run by “Clear Mind,” a major pharmaceutical company, to review the effects of an experimental drug intended to treat dementia by countering the effects of cognitive degeneration and memory loss.

During the course of the trial, she is visited daily by Supervisor Y, who administers the medication, provides her with a few books and a chess set to provide a degree of mental stimulation and a methodology of tracking her cerebral progress, and poses the same set of three questions each visit.

There are copies of X’s signed application to join the trial, and written details of her reasons for doing so (a £30,000 supplement to her student grant). She is assured that she has 24-hour access to a specifically assigned Welfare Support Officer. Everything seems in order.

And yet there is the distinct sense that all is not what it seems. Why does a camera watch her every move? Why is the door to her isolated room permanently locked? And why does she have no memory of any aspect of her previous life before she arrived at the facility, including the circumstances of her arrival there?

As time moves on, drug doses are increased, and the repetitive nature of her daily experience begins to bite, Subject X begins to have gnawing doubts about the validity and true nature of the trial. Is there another, more sinister, reason for her being here? Or is her growing sense of unease, isolation, disorientation and disquiet merely a side effect of her medication?

The first half an hour of this sixty-minute play skilfully builds the tension. We get a very real sense of the daily tightening of the psychological noose as Subject X’s mental

confusion and increasing dissociation from reality begin to weigh ever more heavily. Can she trust the Supervisor? Her attempts to reach out to her “Welfare Officer” are thwarted as it quickly transpires that this support function is merely an AI-generated bot.

In the second half of the play, the realisation of what is really going on hits Subject X, with her attempts to take control of the situation leading to a clash with the Supervisor, and a radical subversion and reinterpretation of what we have seen up to now.

The acting is this two-hander is strong and authentic throughout.

Freya Popplewell, as Subject X, gives a thoughtful and nuanced portrayal of a woman dealing with the escalating levels of unease, confusion, suspicion and disorientation she is feeling. Her secondary characterisation, later in the piece, is similarly convincing in its hard-nosed, clear-eyed, analytical rationalism, very different from the vulnerability which was previously displayed.

Macsen Brown, as Supervisor Y, skilfully infuses a friendly, approachable, sometimes bumbling persona with a slight edge; the occasional brusqueness and emphasis upon the correct procedural responses to Subject X’s situation dilutes the empathy he is at pains to show, and adds to the belief that there is a hidden, not very likeable, sub plot to all of his actions.

The simplistic set design helps evoke the claustrophobic, sterile bleakness of Subject X’s room. White drapes and bare staging accentuate the sense of emptiness and minimalist desolation.

Similarly, sound and lighting combine to underline the sense of dissociative overload. The music is brutally discordant and throbbing, subtly evoking a sense of dislocated phrenic synapse transmission. The repetitive statements of the current progress of the clinical trial are also used to reveal information to position and point the action.

Deft lighting changes, used in specific, climactic moments, contrast well with the block of white, bright sterility that generally predominates.

Whilst not wishing to reveal any secrets of the plot, it is fair to say that the narrative is laced through with ambiguity, and in its second half subverts and turns on its head the assumptions underpinning everything we think we have been watching. The piece asks some fundamental questions: What is reality? What does it mean to be human? How can we assess and understand the validity of what we see, hear, and experience in a world where authenticity, truth and certainty are increasingly fluid concepts, subject to continual reinterpretation, whether by human or AI-generated agencies?

Whilst very large subjects are raised here, ultimately, this production becomes swamped by the magnitude of the issues that are being considered.

It is frustrating that, in hurtling towards a conclusion (of sorts) in 60 minutes, we are denied more detail about the motivations and back history of the characters, especially Supervisor Y. Their real nature always remains just out of reach, and this dilutes the emotional heft of the piece.

There is a playfulness in some clues that are sprinkled throughout the narrative, which are designed to make explicit the essence of what we have witnessed, especially the knowing smile at the end by one of the characters, and the nature of the insertion of brackets in the production’s title. Perhaps a question mark would have been helpful here, too, to emphasise the need to consider a certain aspect of plot development….

Unfortunately, the conclusion of the play becomes weighed down by analytical exposition and over-explanation (with some parts of the final dialogue rather clumsy and preachy), instead of leaving the audience sufficient space to interpret what they have seen themselves.

However, this is a very ambitious play which contains an inventive, innovative plot construct, and raises important moral and ethical questions. There is a depth to this work from which more can be mined, with opportunities to consider in greater detail the value of human interaction in an AI world, and the moral dilemmas inherent in an age dominated by the seemingly unstoppable advance of sophisticated, yet soulless, new forms of technology.

Review Johnny Oxford

Waking up in a treatment room with a single camera and no memory of how she got there, Subject X is freaking out.
It’s only when calm, enigmatic Supervisor Y enters and reassures her: she is participating in a 2 week medical trial by established pharmaceutical biotech company ClearMind, which will add significant cash into her dwindling student bank account. Here’s the paperwork. Memory loss is a known side effect.

As tests are taken, doses are increased, will Subject X figure out the real reason she’s here, or is this growing unease just a side effect?

Macsen Brown – Supervisor Y and Producer
Freya Popplewell – Subject X
Mercy Brewer – Writer
Fiona Popplewell – Director
Sam Bell – Technical Director
Rory Clarke – Set Designer

TR[IA]L
White Bear Theatre
14 to 18 April 2026