'The Effect' is postponed due to Covid-19
Two of Lucy Prebble’s plays – ‘ENRON’ and the recent ‘A Very Expensive Poison’ – are so complicated to stage that we may well never see them again. But her brilliant 2012 outing ‘The Effect’, for all its fiendishly clever probing at the question of whether or not love is anything more than a chemical reaction, is a fairly technically manageable four-hander. Still, don’t expect this first London revival of her drama about two people who fall in love (or do they?) whilst on a drugs trial to be straightforward: aside from the impossibly dextrous plot, this production will be directed by arch surrealist Anthony Neilson, who you suspect will absolutely go to town on the script's trippier elements.
There’s a brilliant cast as well: the peerless Kate O’Flynn heads it up, with Eric Kofi Abrefa, Christine Entwisle and Tim McMullan.