September, 2024
Details
The Effect THE EFFECT is coming! From the pen of Lucy Prebble To Be in Love or Not to Be in Love? That is the Question “Love is merely a madness,” wrote William Shakespeare
Details
The Effect
THE EFFECT is coming! From the pen of Lucy Prebble
To Be in Love or Not to Be in Love? That is the Question
“Love is merely a madness,” wrote William Shakespeare in As You Like It, “and, I tell you, deserves, as well, a dark house and a whip as madmen do” But what is love, is it merely an effect? A reaction of the nervous system?
The play’s central question is an intriguing one. Irish cajoling Tristan and sceptical psychology student Connie join the clinical trial for cash, but end up in love instead.
It poses the question of whether their love, who as volunteers, are strangers and have never previously met is real, or simply a side effect of a new anti-depressant drug taken for clinical trial.
In The Effect, Prebble brilliantly excavates love and the complex chemicals and feelings that come with the all-encompassing emotion. Her sharp script is not only snappy and funny and sad, but extraordinarily natural.
How much does our brain make us what we are, and how much does our behaviour influence our brain, particularly when it comes to love? In The Effect, Lucy Prebble examines what makes us human and the nature of love. It’s a dizzying journey, full of emotion, shock and stimulation for that blob of grey matter.
Somehow, the agonized collapse of Tristan and the muted anguish of psychology student Connie seem like equal acts of the brain exposure in clinical trials. Prebble isn’t only interested in love, and only abstractedly in sex, but ponders medical ethics, and why we trust external chemicals rather than the reactions of our own fickle brains.
The clinical trials are orchestrated by Dr Laura James and Dr Toby Sealey. They have had a past affair which bring additional intrigue and tension
The Effect provides the audience a voyeuristic view of effects of new love, past love or maybe, unreal love, in the arena of a clinical trial.
Prebble first dominated our London stages with Sugar Syndrome and Enron and is now a household name, primarily known as one of the most in-demand screenwriters of her generation. She began her television career writing Secret Diary of a Call Girl and co-created I Hate Suzie with her close friend, the actress Billie Piper, who also starred in the first iteration of The Effect. Most recently, she wrote and co-executively produced the show that none of us can stop talking about: Succession.
The Effect was revived at the National in 2023 before transferring to New York.
Malvern Theatre Players are excited at the opportunity to put on this pulsating, heart stopping play at the Coach House Theatre Malvern.
Mon 16th to Sat 21st Sept at 7:30pm also Sat 21st at 2:30pm
The Coach House Theatre – Tickets £16 (inc booking fee) from Malvern Theatres box office 01684 892277 or www.malvern-theatres.co.uk
Time
16th September 2024 7:30 pm - 21st September 2024 7:30 pm