The Effect

Reviews / Votes

Lucy Prebble is a playwright blessed with an exceptionally fine mind . . . the play struck me as being both wise and sane, raising more questions than it answers, to be sure, but that seems a sign of integrity in a work dealing with such a complex subject. But what makes The Effect so special, is that as well as being a play of ideas, it is also deeply moving, both in its depiction of the giddy wonder of love, and also in its account of the terrifying wasteland of depression itself . . . The Effect is an astonishingly rich and rewarding play, as intelligent as it is deeply felt. * Daily Telegraph * Lucy Prebble's follow-up to Enron is a scintillating exploration of the clash between scientific advance and human impulse ... it demonstrates the same vivid, provocative intelligence * Financial Times * This four-hander brings the author's agile wit, intellectual penetration and a fresh, deeply affecting empathy to bear on a fundamentally much more complex topic than finance: brain chemistry and what it can - and cannot - tell us about the causes of severe depression and the experience of being in love ... This is a provocative and challenging play ... it ends in edgy gesture of good sense that made me feel like cheering. * Independent * After her hit with Enron, Lucy Prebble turns to medicine and the mind - to great effect ... The Effect is a four-hander that hopscotches confidently across themes of neurology, psychopharmacology, depression, love and guilt . . . The Effect moves you to thought, sometimes to strong feeling. * Sunday Times * Prebble has written a profound and stirring play. The material is complex but always accessible, the drama serious and informative yet deeply human, with the odd jolt of piercing humour. The Effect confirms her as one of the most intelligent voices in British theatre. * Evening Standard * Incisive dialogue . . . Prebble really researches and the range of her subjects suggests she will have a long theatrical life * Observer * The Effect is a headlong delve into the mysteries of the human brain. And Prebble pulls it off with assurance, tickling our cerebellums in the first half, before tugging on our heartstrings in the second . . . heartbreaking . . . [it has] a heart as well as a brain. * Time Out * Lucy Prebble's absorbing drama, a hit . . . Taut, intelligent * The Times * This is a knotty drama, dealing with scientific objectivity, guilt, the mysteries of the human heart and brain and what makes us who we are, wrapped up in a deceptively simple and constantly entertaining package. * Guardian *