DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU
You're one of the lucky ones. Most people don't catch an Annie until it's too late.
At twenty, Sam's life is all forward motion-until the arrival of an unexpected companion changes everything. What begins as a normal day unravels into something stranger, darker, and impossible to ignore. Years later, Sam reconstructs the story: rewiring memories, retracing her past, and trying to find the place where everything fell apart. But Annie, her unwelcome counterpart, has another plan in mind.
Dear Annie, I Hate You is a bold, darkly funny exploration of memory, survival, and the slow, imperfect return to oneself-told through the messy process of reconstructing a life interrupted.
RIVERSIDE STUDIOS & PLEASANCE COURTYARD
May - August 2025
Written & Created by SAMANTHA IPEMA
Directed by JAMES METEYARD
Set & Lighting Design by HUGO DODSWORTH
Costume Design by HAZEL MCINTOSH
Sound Design by DAN BALFOUR
Video Design by DAN LIGHT & DOUGLAS COGHLAN
Photographs by CHARLES FLINT
NOMINATED - BEST SET DESIGN - BROADWAY WORLD UK/WEST END AWARD
NOMINATED - BEST LIGHTING DESIGN - BROADWAY WORLD UK/WEST END AWARD
WINNER - BEST MULTI-MEDIA SHOW - THE STAGEY PLACE
WINNER - BEST NEW WRITING - THE STAGEY PLACE
WINNER - BEST SHOW, TOP PICK OF THE FRINGE - SINNERS REVIEW
SHORTLISTED - THE POPCORN AWARD 2024
NOMINATED - BEST ENSEMBLE - THE STAGEY PLACE
★★★★
“With a set and lighting by Hugo Dodworth, the staging regales audiences with an enthralling array of visuals – boasting meaning and pithiness through its uncanny ability to form solid pictures through symbolic abstraction.”
★★★★
“The staging is inventive, techno-fuelled and loaded with neurological symbolism. Flexible neon tube lights plug and unplug into retro TVs that balance atop white columns. They are intelligently programmed to change as Sam’s brain does, starting off bright and stable, then flickering and flashing as she re-learns the use of her bodily functions.”
“[the play's] neurological subject matter is intelligently expressed in Hugo Dodsworth’s set design.”
★★★★
“When the plastic curtains pull aside to reveal the full scope of Dodsworth’s work, the effect is breathtaking.”
★★★★
“Surrounded by the television screens and glowing cables of Hugo Dodsworth’s canny set design, Sam’s journey unfolds.”
★★★★★
“The performance space at Zoo Playground is quite compact and I’ve rarely seen such a modest stage used to such great effect […] The simple but utterly practical props work a treat, light cables pulsing and flashing to accentuate the action, and there’s one bit of business – which I won’t spoil – that actually makes me gasp out loud.”
“the general aesthetic is literally electric in Dear Annie, I Hate You.”
“direction and design combine perfectly.”
★★★★
“Exceptional performance fuses with exceptional production design in Samantha Ipema’s confronting production.”
★★★★
“[Sam Ipema] proves herself an assured performer taking us through her early life while home video clips appear on monitors linked by LED cables to mimic the synapses of the brain. It’s slick and dynamic, poignant and funny.”
★★★★
“The set design was a full-on Fringe miracle.”
“This was light as art. It carved out the space, bathed moments in warmth or tension, and turned key beats into something almost cinematic. At times, the lighting itself felt like another performer—quietly stealing the scene in the best possible way.”
