Displaying items by tag: The Effect

What brings people together? Similar interest, physical attraction, and availability? Or could it be just a side effect of the medication the doctor prescribed? Strawdog Theatre Company kicks their 32nd season off with the Chicago Premier of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect.

Tristan, a cheerful young man hungry to see the world, and Connie, a bright young woman unsure of her purpose in life, volunteer as subjects for a new antidepressant. The study is being monitored by Dr. Lorna James who battles with her own depression. From the moment they take their first dosage of this new medication, Connie and Tristan find themselves falling in love. An attraction that appears as a blessing to Tristan but troubling to Connie who is already in a relationship with an older man. As the experiment proceeds, and the dosage Tristan and Connie ingest increase, so does their attraction with one another. Connie offers that the antidepressant could very well be the reason they are willing to change their lives for one another. Believing what is pulling them together is simply a side effect. That’s until one of them finds out that the other is on a placebo.

Acclaimed writer Lucy Prebble, Co-Executive Producer and Co-writer of HBO new hit show Succession has created an impressive catalog. The Effect originally premiered at the National Theater and won the Critic’s Circle Award for Best New Play and has been dazzling audiences since then. The dialogue feels authentic to the point that it hurts. Free of any restraint, allowing the characters to reveal the best and worst part of themselves. 

Chicago based director Elly Green gives displays The Effect on a cube shape stage. Using the monitor in the center as into the character’s dosage amount, their EKG, and bio. It’s presented in a way that to make the audience feel like doctors sitting before the stage in lab coats, analyzing the experiment at hand. The production very well deserved an applause along with the actors for catapulting the audience into the play like a 2001: A Space Odyssey trip in a vortex of lights.

Each actor holds their own in this fine play, but the one I want to place the spotlight on is Justine C. Turner who plays Dr. Lorna James. She handles the transition from a calm, collected doctor doing her job to a broken woman in an astounding way. As if you’re watching Lady Macbeth struggle to rub that damn spot from her clothes for an entire half of a play. 

The Effect is modern love tale that deeply absorbs the reality of prescribed medications and its weight in our society. These new medicines, its shady providers or overuse by the consumer, brings new questions for this generation and others following to answer. We must find a balance between ourselves and this new medicine. Establish a way we use them to aid us through our everyday lives and not hinder or disrupt. The Effect takes on this subject with intellect, humor, and plenty of heart. 

Through November 23, 2019 at Strawdog Theatre.