There’s a moment towards the end of Anna X where Ariel (Tom Stokes) sits lamenting the path his life has taken, while looking at a small television turned such that we can’t see the screen. The lines from Ariel are worn, plaintive as he describes the truths he’s since learned about Anna (Becca Galvin).
The scene begins to change and as the television is pulled away we glimpse the screen and it’s playing The Horse in Motion (1878) – a series of photographs that were one of the first examples of capturing the passage of time and playing it back as motion, tricking the eye. You know the truth of the thing, but you’re deceived anyway. In some ways you want to be deceived.
Anna X is based on the true story of Anna Delvey, who conned her way into certain upper-class and wealthy circles by posing as a Russian heiress. In Anna X we follow Anna navigating New York and narrating her path to funding her art foundation and getting to some kind of legitimate place before the jig is up.
Along the way she meets Ariel, a start-up entrepreneur who meets Anna at a party and ends up extremely wyrd and extremely smitten. But there’s a coldness, a distance to their relationship, before everything threatens to collapses in on itself and the truth about Anna revealed.
Louisa Fitzgerald’s set has to function as various galleries, lofts, and other exclusive spaces. Its modular walls and sections give a genuine feel of a museum space or gallery, with smaller blocks shifted around as required, complete with exhibition card.
It’s a captivating space for Lisa Mibus’ lights – at times creating these geometric blocks of colour with sharp edges, becoming later more of a stark white when all the illusion and wishful thinking has been stripped away, to the eventual soothing light-mint colour scheme of a prison cell.
Becca Galvin’s Anna is unapologetic, borderline sociopathic with her inability to emotionally connect with Ariel. Yet for all her honesty with the audience as she directly addresses us, there is something charming about her brazenness, almost enviable. It was a phenomenal performance from Becca, not least of all by wielding an Eastern European accent in a way that never became a distraction.
Ariel also feels like an imposter at times, trading a more simple life for one where success isn’t about authenticity, but rather about excess and what you can convince others to think you’re worth. It’s fantastic work by Tom, particularly when he speaks directly to the audience.
That clawing feeling of wanting affection to be reciprocated, yet knowing bringing it up will turn that person away, will be familiar to many. It’s a horrific state of being beautifully depicted by Tom, and helps us understand that for all its black comedy, this is a play about emotional annihilation.
Exquisite work by director Tait De Lorenzo and cast and crew to fashion this satisfying and compelling tale. As Anna indeed says, “Perfect.”
Anna X
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Chapel Street, St Kilda East
Performance: Wednesday 27 May 2026
Season continues to 21 June 2026
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Images: Becca Galvin and Tom Stokes in Anna X – photo by Simon Fazio | Becca Galvin and Tom Stokes in Anna X – photo by Simon Fazio | Becca Galvin in Anna X – photo by Chris Parker
Review: June Collins