The Effect

What impulses define who we really are? As Connie and Tristan settle into their participation in a clinical drug trial, they begin to fall in love. But how can they be sure it’s the real thing and not an exhilarating side effect of the new antidepressant they’re taking? The supervising doctors begin to ask themselves questions too: where do they draw the line between love and ethics?

The Effect is written by Emmy Award winner Lucy Prebble (HBO’s Succession) and directed by Olivier Award winner Jamie Lloyd (Cyrano de Bergerac at BAM, A Doll’s House and Betrayal on Broadway). It features Paapa Essiedu (HBO’s I May Destroy You) and Taylor Russell (Bones and All, Netflix’s Lost in Space) as the participants at the center of an illicit romance alongside Michele Austin (This Is Going to Hurt, Cyrano de Bergerac at BAM) and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Olivier Award winner for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) as the doctors administering the clinical trial.

With a traverse staging that intimately connects audience and performers, this propulsive production’s strictly limited, four-week engagement follows its acclaimed run at London’s National Theatre this past fall.