Good theater often challenges you, makes you think. The Effect by Lucy Prebble at the Gamm Theatre in Warwick does just that.
It’s a play about a clinical trial gone awry, love, and ambition.
Two young volunteers in a clinical trial for a new antidepressant fall in love, but is it true love or the result of the drug itself? And are the clinicians pushing this trial through for profit?
Complex issues played out on a simple set, squares on the stage floor. What was Prebble’s intent – to discredit clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry?
Anthony T. Gross plays Tristan and Gabrielle McCauley plays Connie, the young patients. Jeanine Kane plays Dr. Lorna James and Stephen Thorne, a veteran Trinity actor, plays Dr. Toby Sealey.
Tristan is the flirtatious young man, a veteran of clinical trials, while Connie, who was in a relationship, is flighty. Over the course of the play, they defy rules of personal contact to fall in love, creating greater challenges for Dr. James, who deals directly with the pair, and appears herself to be quite fragile. She seems dedicated to the goals of the trial, complicated by her supervisor, Sealy’s ambitions.
Steve Kidd is the director. In some previous productions the clinicians remain on stage in chairs off to either side. At the Gamm, the clinicians are only on stage when involved in the dialogue, and that works well.
This is the opening production of the Gamm’s 40th season. It plays through October 13 at the Gamm, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick. Telephone: 401-723-4266.
