In Lucy Prebble’s play The Effect, two test subjects, Connie and Tristan, meet during a clinical trial for a new antidepressant. They fall for each other as the trial progresses, but they cannot discern whether their feelings are just one of the drug’s side effects. Their psychiatrists privately wonder about it, too.
Prebble, who recently wrote for HBO’s Succession, first staged the show at London’s National Theatre in 2012. It earned her the U.K. Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play. After returning to the National Theatre, at the end of 2023, it’s now playing in New York City, at the Shed, for its second run. (It debuted in 2016 at Barrow Street Theatre.) Paapa Essiedu stars as Tristan, a working-class boy. Playing the role with lightness and sensitivity, he acts opposite Taylor Russell, best known for her role in the 2022 film Bones and All. She portrays Connie as reserved, in control, and analytical.
