THE EFFECT (MALVERN THEATRE PLAYERS)
Malvern Theatre Players
(Resident Company of the Coach House Theatre)
49th Season
The Effect
By Lucy Prebble
“Love is merely a madness” wrote William Shakespeare in As You Like It, “and, I tell you, deserves well a dark house and a whip as madmen do.” But what is love, is it merely an effect? A reaction of the nervous system? That’s what Lucy Prebble’s play puts into question through characters cajoling Tristan and serene psychotherapy student Connie who fall in love while undergoing a clinical test for a new antidepressant.
The Effect is the production that affirmed Prebble’s gilded status as a playwright-to-watch when it was first staged at the National’s Cottesloe (now Dorfman Theatre) in 2012 following success with The Sugar Syndrome and ENRON. Since then, Prebble has become a household name. In part thanks to Succession, but also thanks to I Hate Lucy and Secret Diaries of a Call Girl.
**** Intense and intoxicating encounter – Guardian
**** A fiery play – Telegraph
**** A mind blowing experience – Standard
Contains material that some people may find offensive
Not suitable for under 14s
