The Effect
National Theatre - Lyttleton

THE EFFECT by Lucy Prebble is being revived at the Lyttleton Theatre. First shown at the smaller Cottesloe in 2012, it commanded attention at the time for its star casting, and also as a test piece for the playwright after her acclaimed play Enron. 

The Effect sets out to explore what, in philosophical terms, is really an old chestnut, namely: whether our brains are just mechanical devices determining our behaviour or whether we do indeed possess an independent, causal self. 

Tristan and Connie are participating in a mind-changing drugs trial run by a posh psychiatric clinic that pays guinea pigs well. The question thrown up by the trial is: what of this couple’s thinking is simply drug generated and what “real”? When they seem to fall in love, what does this mean?

Meanwhile, two psychiatrists mirror the debate, differing in their faith in the science and floundering in the after-effects of their previous affair. 

This is certainly a skilled production worthy of a national theatre. Beginning on a black, brooding traverse stage with heavy, insistent drumbeat, Soutra Gilmour’s set transforms itself, as the play progresses, into brilliant white rectangles that sear themselves into the memory. There are no props, except one: an intriguing white bucket whose purpose is revealed in time.  

The cast of four lift and make the play, endowing what is a starkly cerebral text with the humanity it needs. Paapa Essiedu, as Tristan, commands the stage, with every move a new and exciting revelation, and every sentence redolent of a real and complex person who holds and enthrals us. 

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, as one of the two psychiatrists, perfectly inhabits the role of the smooth-talking, purring-voiced product of elocution lessons and brings much humour. Taylor Russell as Connie impressively makes her professional theatre debut in this leading role and is quite simply a star in the making. Meanwhile, Michele Austin – always flawless in any role – unerringly charms as the other psychiatrist for whom science is blurred at the edges.  
  
Directed by Jamie Lloyd, who as always takes us on an unerring journey where every moment is choreographed, and meaning distilled through every word. The constant, prowling movement of Tristan and Connie, circling each other like animals while exchanging words that may or may not come from a more cognitive place, is mesmerising, as is the fast pace and assured sense of purpose of the entire thesis... for thesis this is. 

Audiences like to think they are engaging in intellectual discourse and here enjoy what is sometimes pure debate.  

But in the end, this is a contrived piece which, despite the excellent acting and directorial purpose, is half-baked when terms such as “real” and being “in love” are bandied about so vaguely and presumptuously. 

I can’t believe in this trial – so amateurishly organised; I can’t believe in the intrusion of the psychiatrists’ personal discourse at such a point.  

The idea is attention-grabbing, the dialogue pacy and cool, the production exemplary.  

But in the end, I felt hollow inside... and something didn’t ring true.

Runs until October 7; box office: 020 3989 5455, nationaltheatre.org.uk