Review: THE EFFECT at The Gamm Theatre

It’s fun to say that romantic love is a matter of chemistry — fun, that is, as long as “chemistry” is metaphorical shorthand for the qualities and quirks that, when brought together, ignite emotions that feel like alchemy. But what if personal chemistry is not figurative, but literal: a combination of controlled substances and their effects that can be created in a laboratory as easily as on a date?

This question animates THE EFFECT, the 2012 play by British writer Lucy Prebble, now on stage at The Gamm Theatre in Warwick. When Tristan and Connie both join an isolated, four-week clinical trial for a new mood-altering drug, sparks quickly fly. But is their intense attraction simply an effect of the medication? And, if all feelings are induced by our brain’s chemicals, does it matter whether those chemicals occur naturally or arrive in tidy little pills? As the two wrestle with the ethical dilemmas — and emotional possibilities — that this uncertainty raises, they throw their nascent relationship in tumult, threaten the integrity of the trial, and unmoor common assumptions about the links between mind and heart, identity and attraction, inviting us to question what love is at all. 

The premise has some design flaws. (For example: How do these two young lovers keep managing to sneak out of their monitored isolation cells, even after the clinical supervisors are onto them?) But the logistical questions are well outweighed by the philosophical ones, whose afterlives will linger long after you leave the theater. THE EFFECT is a brave exploration of the reach — and limits — that our brains have on who we are, and how we love. 

Director Steve Kidd keeps the pace brisque and the stage sparse. There is just one piece of furniture in the entire production; instead, lighting shifts, blocking tape, and body positions create quick scene changes that keep the focus on the actors’ bodies, and what their postures and proximities to each other may reveal or conceal. The simple staging also brings the play's script — which is both philosophically dense and emotionally intense — into sharp relief, letting critical details settle (and unsettle).

The play’s four performers make this rich script and minimalist set work, bringing nuance and energy to their respective roles. As Tristan and Connie, Anthony T. Goss and Gabrielle McCauley have the charisma and — what else? — chemistry to make the characters’ whirlwind infatuation palpable, despite the script’s scant details about their personal histories. McCauley’s Connie is charming and brainy, with strength that belies the fluttery nervousness animating her gestures and dialog. Goss’s Tristan is an ideal foil for her precocious intellectualism: playful and grounded, he challenges Connie’s skepticism that medically-induced love is not still love. Both McCauley and Goss commit to the physicality of their roles, using movement to express anger and intimacy, joy and confinement. Jeanine Kane also shines as the trial’s director, Dr. Lorna James, whose clinical cool-headedness slowly cracks as she begins to question why she was asked to lead the trial, and what implications it may have for her own sense of identity. And in his Gamm debut, Stephen Thorne — a longtime Trinity Rep company member — makes her supervisor Dr. Toby Sealey likable despite his evasiveness, lending him a sincerity that complicates his slippery surface. 

THE EFFECT runs through October 13 at The Gamm Theatre, located at 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI. Remaining tickets are $60–70; rush tickets and discounts for seniors, students, and groups are available. They are available online at www.gammtheatre.org and via phone at 401-723-4266.

Photo by Cat Laine.

To post a comment, you must register and login.