\n<\/p>\n
The world of experimental medical research might not seem like it has much to say to the world of theater, but Lucy Prebble sees connections. Both require subjects and observers, both take place within a carefully controlled environment and both depend on a certain amount of luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more I thought about it, the more I thought, \u2018That\u2019s kind of what we do,\u2019\u201d said Prebble, a British playwright and screenwriter.<\/p>\n
In 2006, Prebble became fascinated with one botched medical trial<\/a> in particular, in which six healthy young Britons experienced multiple organ failure after taking a novel drug. The incident partly inspired \u201cThe Effect<\/a>,\u201d Prebble\u2019s play about two participants in a drug trial that alters the course of their lives. First produced in 2012 at the National Theater in London (and performed in New York at the Barrow Street Theater in 2016), it was revived there last fall and will come to New York on March 3 for a limited engagement at the Shed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Like the London revival, the New York run will star Paapa Essiedu<\/a> (\u201cI May Destroy You,\u201d \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d) and Taylor Russell (\u201cWaves,\u201d \u201cBones and All\u201d) as Tristan and Connie, two people from different class backgrounds with near opposite personalities who are given an antidepressant with the potential to induce feelings of love. When the drug proves stronger than expected \u2014 testing the boundary between love and mania \u2014 the trial\u2019s administrators (played by Michele Austin and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) struggle to keep it from spinning out of control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey know what they feel but they don\u2019t know why they feel it,\u201d Essiedu said of Tristan and Connie. \u201cAre they experiencing something that\u2019s 1 in 1 billion? Or will it be here today and gone tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n Prebble wrote the play while dealing with her own heartache and what she described as a bout with depression.<\/p>\n \u201cI became very interested in what was real and what was not, what was love and what was a false high,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to see if I could replicate that feeling in a theatrical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Directed by Jamie Lloyd, known for his bracingly modernist style (\u201cA Doll\u2019s House\u201d<\/a> with Jessica Chastain, \u201cCyrano de Bergerac\u201d<\/a> with James McAvoy), the revival is as slick and gleaming as a pill capsule. Thanks to a jettisoned intermission and other edits that Lloyd made in collaboration with Prebble, the show is now a trim 100 minutes, nearly 20 percent shorter than the original production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There are few props and no costume changes, and lighting design, by Jon Clark, augments a bare-bones set, with a combination of spotlights and illuminated floor panels creating the impression of multiple rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s great about Jamie is everything comes from this deep, authentic desire within him to find what is necessary,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIt\u2019s never, \u2018Let\u2019s be radical in this way or that way.\u2019 It\u2019s, \u2018How can we let our imaginations be the focus here? What gives or takes away from that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Before the London run, Russell had never performed on a stage professionally. She pursued the role after falling for the script, and read for Lloyd in New York during his Broadway production of \u201cA Doll\u2019s House\u201d last spring.<\/p>\n Coming from a film background, where every day on set is different from the last, Russell worried that she would find the repetition of theater stultifying. But, to the contrary, she said the experience has brought a new sense of freedom to her work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou walk onstage and you have no idea what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether you feel good, or you feel ugly, or you didn\u2019t do enough prep, or you hated your last performance \u2014 you just have to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n Essiedu, who, in 2016, became the first actor of color to play Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, said he was attracted to the play\u2019s rigorous ambiguity. It is suggested early on that either Tristan or Connie may be receiving a placebo, leaving the audience to guess whose feelings are \u201creal\u201d and whose are being chemically enhanced.<\/p>\n When that mystery is resolved, others emerge. What was this drug really designed for, anyway? And what\u2019s going on between the two administrators?<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t quite work out whether it was a tragedy or a triumph,\u201d Essiedu said of reading the play. \u201cEven now, having done it for two months, I never quite settle on what I believe \u2014 sometimes I think it\u2019s one, sometimes I think it\u2019s the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Prebble, who was a writer and executive producer on \u201cSuccession\u201d \u2014 a show famous for its volatile brew of tragedy and comedy \u2014 said she tends to lean toward tragedy in her own writing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an argument that tragedy is the more optimistic art form,\u201d she said. \u201cComedy essentially doesn\u2019t allow for change because it has to constantly reset itself. But in tragedy, change is possible. In the end, everything is different from where it began.\u201d<\/p>\n The characters in the play have undergone some evolution since it was first performed more than a decade ago. Connie and Tristan, originally from Britain and Ireland, are now from Canada and East London, where Russell and Essiedu each were raised. And a pivotal dance that Tristan uses to charm Connie has been changed from Irish tap to a hip-hop shimmy, modeled by Essiedu (working with the movement directors Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui) after the stage shows of Childish Gambino and Tyler the Creator.<\/p>\n For the New York run, Prebble said she will make a few additional changes \u2014 to contextualize some culturally specific references, for example \u2014 but preserve fundamental character and plot details. (Is there a difference between American audiences and British ones? \u201cIn Britain, they laugh a line earlier,\u201d Prebble said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost pre-emptive \u2014 like they want to do the joke in their own head, or let you know they see what\u2019s about to happen.\u201d)<\/p>\n And as with any play \u2014 or science experiment \u2014 the real breakthroughs are the ones you don\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to be allowed to change and be specific to the moment,\u201d Essiedu said. \u201cIf you\u2019re chasing the high that you had before, it\u2019s never going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n