Dear Annie, I Hate You – Riverside Studios

Samantha Ipema takes what is perhaps the most traumatic period of her life and turns it into a dramatic telling full of comedy and poignance. To say that this play offers a peek into its creator’s brain is not hyperbole, it is a mere fact. We do get to see her brain. But more on that later.

The play is directed by James Meteyard and Ipema plays herself as she tells her life story from the day she met her adoptive brother, Mica. Their childhood shenanigans, school, friends, teenage, and her love for soccer. And that’s where Annie comes into her life.

Annie is the personification of the aneurysm that doctors find in Sam’s brain. She is unpredictable, explosive, and is played with chaotic energy by Eleanor House. She is Sam’s unwelcome plus-one at spring break, in school, at parties. The aneurysm is the elephant in the room that Sam refuses to talk about but is as real as this game show playing, dancing, chattering Annie.

Sam’s memories and thoughts are given shape on stage as a series of television screens, connecting light-up cables, and a handheld video camera. The screens show her family and friends talking to and about Sam. Brilliant sound design by Dan Balfour and lighting design by Hugo Dodsworth (who is did the set design as well) round off the internal workings of Sam’s brain. Lighting, in fact, has been used with excellent effect to depict everything from blinding pain to first love.

Mica is a strong thread through the play. It is for him that Sam dresses up as superheroes, and it is in his “You are Batman” that Sam finds encouragement and strength. Finally, it is through a heart-to-heart with Mica – an intimate conversation shown with the play of light and shadow – that Sam comes to terms with her reality.

“Dear Annie…” is anything but an easy watch in more ways than one. The painful path to recovery from brain surgery is beautifully portrayed with Sam’s uncooperative, limp limbs and the deliberate thought process required for taking a single step. Actual close-up footage of the surgery itself is included, one assumes, to add a dimension of raw pain (the audience is given fair warning and the option to walk out for a few minutes while this happens). But it begs the question as to whether we really need to see it feel it.  

There is the occasional sensory overload when the lights are flashing in blinding brightness and music is at its chaotic peak. Though, it does serve as an effective depiction of what the trauma was like to her.

Dear Annie, I Hate You is at Riverside Studios until June 1st and tickets are available here: https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/dear-annie-i-hate-you-156247/

Reviewer: Savitha Venugopal

Reviewed: 13th May 2025

North West End UK Rating: