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| Stacie Stocker, Miranda Gross, and Torey Anderson Photo Courtesy of iTheatre Collaborative |
Click here for more information on this production that runs through September 23.
".In Lucy Prebble's play The Effect participants in a drug trial are being watched, documented and studied for their reactions to the new drug they are given. ..Prebble's intriguing, though not completely successful, ..we see how drugs can manipulate and heighten a person's feelings and emotions, as well as how the effect the trial has on the testers also impacts the doctors overseeing the trial. iTheatre Collaborative presents the Arizona premiere of the play with a talented quartet of actors who create realistic and compelling characters....Prebble poses a lot of interesting questions in The Effect, though there is uncertainty and inconclusiveness in the many issues raised. ..The playwright has created four realistic, though not entirely fleshed out, characters with sharp dialogue. However, the 100-minute play (in two acts at iTheatre) drags a bit in spots and is also somewhat repetitive in nature. Miranda Gross and Torey Anderson provide emotionally rewarding performances as the two test patients. As the drug dosage level increases and their attraction to each other intensifies, they deliver well-defined and displayed heightened reactions, raw exposed vulnerabilities, and a deep connection to each other. Stacie Stocker is perfectly level-headed ..as the sincere yet direct psychiatrist. But once the cracks in her steely façade start to appear, she expertly displays the effect that depression has on an individual and how it might impact someone in the medical field who has a deep understanding of the disease of depression in an entirely different way....Director Joshua Heath achieves fine, tender and realistic performances from his cast. ..While Prebble's play may raises more questions than it answers and is repetitive in spots with characters that are somewhat vague, it still makes for an intriguing study of drugs, depression, and the dizzy nature of relationships. " -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)
"..a provocative 2012 drama by British playwright Lucy Prebble. It’s about a pair of 20-somethings (Miranda Gross and Torey Anderson) who agree to sign over their cellphones and four weeks of freedom for a clinical trial of a promising new antidepressant. When flirtation explodes into full-on erotic obsession, they don’t know how “real” their feelings are if their brains are supercharged on serotonin — that is, if either or both of them aren’t being fed placebos. ...Prebble asks tough questions here, both timely ones about the state of psychiatry and timeless ones about the nature of love, but in a subtle shocker of an ending, she doesn’t offer easy answers....but a committed cast makes sure that the drama is driven by the characters’ complex humanity." - Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic (click here to read the complete review)
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