“A mysterious medical trial raises philosophical quandaries in this near-future psychological thriller”
Subject X (Freya Popplewell) wakes up in a clinical white room; a CCTV camera focuses on her bed. She has no memory of how she got here. So begins Tr[ia]l, a psychological thriller exploring identity and human responsibility. It transpires that Subject X is one of 20 participants in a medical trial for BrightMind, a drug aimed at dementia and other memory-based illnesses. Each participant’s memories have been temporarily wiped, in a process that can be reversed “if the drug doesn’t work”. As the days go on, this intriguing premise develops into a twisting story casting doubt on the trial’s integrity, and grapples with a big metaphysical question: what is it that makes us who we are?
Waking in a sterile white room surrounded by medical plastic sheeting, with no memory of giving consent, is inherently terrifying. But this is something Subject X readily agreed to: explaining via a pre-written note that mounting student debt made the £45k payment irresistible. Supervisor Y (Macsen Brown) explains this, and also talks through how the trial works; he pops in each day to ask the same three questions: What’s your favourite song? What’s your first memory? What animal would you describe me as?
Popplewell and Brown deliver confident performances as the confused and uncertain patient, and the interested and bouncy research assistant. Supervisor Y talks with the reassuring demeanor of a BA pilot – there’s a top note of privilege, undercut by a latent sense of fun. His voice notes narrate Subject X’s progress to mark each scene transition, summarising key findings and hinting that not all is as it seems in the research facility.
Aside from Supervisor Y, Subject X’s only company comes from a few novels, an old game of chess, and an AI welfare assistant. When she starts asking increasingly philosophical questions of this assistant – How do you know you’re not human? What body would you want if you were human? – her supervisor is clearly rattled, and the tension sharpens. Figuring things out at the same time as Subject X, the audience’s realisation gathers satisfying momentum, and this central twist collides with a second, less-telegraphed development to earn Tr[ia]l its thrilling moniker.
A short epilogue makes sense of these big revelations, in a compelling discussion that zooms out from the medical trial but doesn’t quite capitalise on Tr[ia]l’s intrigue: it raises engaging questions without fully interrogating them. Implications for the in-universe characters, and also wider discussions of ethics, need more space to have their impact. A second area requiring more time is the relationship between Subject X and Supervisor Y. Whilst there are some funny moments in the script – a satire of AI’s sycophantic responses, discomfort at losing a chess game against a test subject – the relationship lacks the texture of humour needed for the audience to fully warm to them.
Its opening is necessarily exposition heavy – Popplewell at least gets a patient fact sheet to read from (available to the audience as they enter the theatre), but Brown’s rapid-fire monologues dense with medical jargon must have been a challenge to learn. This tendency to tell rather than show persists, paradoxically expecting a lot of the audience’s concentration and yet not trusting them to infer some obvious features of the trial. A blackout towards the show’s conclusion would be a good opportunity to move away from exposition, but instead rehashes Supervisor Y’s earlier voice notes in the darkness. Music is generally under-utilised – a more coherent sound design would better sustain tension.
Nevertheless, as near-future sci-fi thrillers performed in the back room of a pub go, Tr[ia]l has a great deal in its favour. It remains rough around the edges – an over-explained script, sterile soundtrack and rushed epilogue – but the core idea is inventive, and its central twist pays off. Tr[ia]l’s pace and scientific focus mark it out, but the writing needs to trust its ideas as much as it explains them.
Tr[ia]l plays at the White Bear Theatre until 18th April, tickets can be purchased here.