A writer behind the hit series Succession has returned to the National with a remarkably clever play about love and being.
I am loathe to describe this play as modern and sexy, but the people are all sexy and it’s a classically contemporary production: thumping Ibiza club beats, flashing white lights, clothing with no identifiable character markers, and of course no set dressing bar a couple of chairs because sets are for losers who can’t communicate ideas simply through direction and suggestive dialogue.
First staged in the Cottesloe back in 2012, Lucy Prebble’s The Effect is now revived in the Lyttleton, this time with Jamie Lloyd at the helm (Rupert Goold directed the premier over a decade ago).
This bare-staged four hander centres around a clinical trial for a new anti-depressant, and the developing love-story of two of its participants.
Given Prebble is one of the writers behind Succession, it’s no surprise the play is quick and witty, the characters full of insecurities but always ready with a humorous retort when cornered.
Traversing both the nature of love and conflicting medical opinions in the treatment of depression, it’s a smartly constructed work about the common emotional denominator between these two.
Can you ever trust a feeling, and how should we treat those feelings that make us uncomfortable, or challenge our ordered reality?
Funnily enough, the real chemistry of the play belongs to the two doctors running the study, whose interactions are loaded with history and unspoken feeling.
Michele Austin and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith rally flirtatious dialogue back and forth across the vast stage of the Lyttelton with magnificent ease and skill.
Their understated verbal interplay is so much more satisfying, more stimulating to watch than the breathless, physical interactions of the younger couple, who fail to occupy the stage in the same way – despite dancing, fighting, and lovemaking.
So successful is Llyod’s direction in displaying the contrast between mature and nascent love – between touch and intimacy – I was disappointed whenever the play left the psychiatrists to return its focus to the patients.
Maybe that’s just personal preference, as I’m sure other less embittered people will find the sheer unbridled recklessness of the youthful love story endearing.
In a remarkably clever mirroring of the play, the empty stage, cool lighting, and wordless music at curtain left me feeling desolate and empty, like the comedown after a high.
I didn’t exit the auditorium caring about the fate of the central characters – they were functional vehicles for Prebble’s ideas – but the secondary characters on the other hand…
A trip to the National is worth it just to see Michele Austin and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith look at one another across a stage.
The Effect plays in the Lyttelton Theatre until October 7 2023. Tickets are available from £20 and are on sale now via the National Theatre website.
Director: Jamie Lloyd
Playwright: Lucy Prebble
Set and Costume Design: Soutra Gilmour
Lighting Design: Jon Clark, composition by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante,
Sound Design: George Dennis
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