You're on a placebo, Tristan. Least I've got an excuse. She told me: you're nothing, you're a control. This is all just you.
Following on from the critical and commercial success of Enron, The Effect is the latest play from Lucy Prebble, and reunites Enron's writer and director once more.
The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Though the details of exactly what they're trialling remain relatively unexplained, the main preoccupation of the play's action is the dehumanising of the volunteers in order to successfully establish the effect of the drugs.
Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction.
Director Rupert Goold reunites with designer Miriam Buether following the National Theatre's production of Earthquakes in London to deliver a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart.
This world premiere is co-produced by Headlong and will be performed at the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre from November 2012-23 February 2013, starring Billie Piper and Jonjo O'Neill.
The Guardian has selected The Effect as one of the highlights of 'the best theatre for autumn 2012' (2/9/12).
