“You’ve never suffered from depression?” Lorna asks Connie. “No,” she responds. She’s been sad, but that’s not the same, is it? She seems slightly baffled at the notion of depression. “It’s an illness, right?” This exchange takes place at the beginning of The Effect, where Connie is being vetted to be a paid volunteer in a four-week trial for a new anti-depressant.
The stage is all clinical brightness, with a cold, white-tiled stage and harsh lighting, but for Connie and Tristan, a fellow guinea pig, it’s about to become a hot-house of passion. Is love the drug here? Is all that dopamine rushing around in their brains naturally induced – by good old lust – or is it artificial, courtesy of the drug?
Whatever the cause, their passion is threatening to derail the test results, and doctor Lorna and Toby, her boss (and former lover), aren’t happy. These two are all business: the trial must proceed and never mind the volunteers’ welfare; there’s too much at stake. Toby’s reputation; lots of money for pharmaceutical companies, perhaps? Or is it genuine concern for the greater good and medical breakthroughs – or genuine concern for greater reputation? Either way, the pair starts to become conflicted about the ethical implications of their work.
Firass Dirani and Emilie Cocquerel. Photo: John Marmaras.
And as Connie and Tristan test their ardour (and wonder as to its authenticity), the debate between Lorna and Toby turns to the very nature of the mind and the mysteries of depressive illness. Is it the human condition and why can (or should) drugs cure it? Is it natural, an imbalance, a sickness? Lorna, it turns out, is no stranger to depression, although she can point to a cause.
Lucy Prebble’s play is intelligent, probing and provocative. Anyone who understands nothing of depressive illness should comprehend more at the end of it; those who are familiar with its bleak wastelands will appreciate The Effect’s candour and questioning.
Tightly directed in this intimate space by Andrew Henry, the cast (Emilie Cocquerel, Emma Jackson, Firass Dirani and Johnny Nasser) is uniformly excellent, giving us believable and natural characters to try to understand. There are no neat endings here, just food for more thought. Well worth seeing.
The Effect, Redline Productions, is at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo until May 19.
