Enron writer Lucy Prebble returns with a fantastic debate about the nature of modern medicine and our understanding of science in this sold out love story at National Theatre.
Debating the neuroscience of love, Lucy Prebble's new play, The Effect is a spellbinding take on what makes two people come together and stay together. But I hesitate to rave about the romance because it wasn't until the second half that I started to care about any of the characters. What they have to say however, is totally fixating.
Trialling a new antidepressant drug, Tristan and Connie experience changes to their physical and emotional states that convince them, in their more romantic moods, that they're falling in love. At more logical moments, they struggle to work out whether it's the effects of the drug they're experiencing. There's also the possibility that one of them may be on a placebo. To Connie (Billie Piper), it's all chemical anyway.
A psychology student, she's keen to explain it all away rationally with none of the idealism that Tristan (Jonjo O'Neill) relies on. As a duo guided by the fantastically dry Dr Lorna (Anastasia Hille), they seduce their audience into their world as their lines fizz and simmer between them but they address a very simple view of science and behaviour.
Their dynamic is soon overshadowed by Lorna's relationship with her superior, Toby (Tom Goodman-Hill), who needs data to prove this drug is marketable. Their discussions are far weightier, much less predictable and what they say lingers longer than anything Piper and O'Neill are given to work with. It's impressive therefore, that all the performers are able to expertly swing a strong lasso over their audience, compelling them to watch as they try to figure out what love really is. By the end, Piper delivers something really phenomenal and her role becomes quite delicately complex. It frequently gets quite syrupy, but it still suckers me in.
Lorna and Toby for example, have a history I'm desperate to discover; a passion for the complexities of their work and a mission to convince each other of their theories. Through them Prebble's writing proves itself again as she tackles not just our collective acceptance of medicine and science but the corporate manipulations we lay ourselves open to.
She also provides an interesting argument about depression and considers the independence of thought we sacrifice in our pursuit of happiness. And she does this by presenting Dr Lorna, an individual who we discover has fought quietly against depression and has a successful life in spite of it. But Prebble's political take on it isn't as simple as I'm making out.
All the characters are problematic (as they should be) and it's interesting to chew over what we can and cannot take from them. Connie is young and sometimes I feel her youth betrays her. Would I take her cynicism more seriously if she were older? Lorna's convictions don't stop her needing a solution she doesn't have yet and Toby's human experience of depression confuses his professional one. So we get debate, comedy and a wonderfully unresolved ending from this brilliantly written if not consistently charming play.
The Effect runs at National Theatre, Cottesloe until 23rd February 2013
More on Spoonfed
Constellations at Duke of York's Theatre
Red Velvet at Tricycle Theatre
The Seagull at Southwark Playhouse
Image by Ellie Kurtz
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