San Francisco Playhouse Presents THE EFFECT By Lucy Prebble

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced casting for the fourth show of its 2017-18 Mainstage Season-The Effect, written by Lucy Prebble. Bill English will direct.

The Effect had its world premiere at the National Theater in London in 2012 and was the winner of the Critics Circle Award. In 2016 it premiered at the Barrow Street Theater in New York.

This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction. Connie and Tristan are falling head-over-heels in love-or is that just a side effect? As volunteers in a clinical trial for a new super-antidepressant, they can't really be sure. As their sudden romance heats up, they're left wondering if they can believe their own feelings, and their doctors are forced to consider the ethical consequences of their work. Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play, The Effect takes on our pill-popping culture with humor and scintillating drama.

The cast of The Effect will feature Susi Damilano*, Joseph Estlack*, Robert Parsons* and Ayelet Firstenberg*.

Lucy Prebble (Playwright) is a writer for film, television, games and theatre. Her play, The Effect, a study of love and neuroscience, was performed at the National Theatre and won the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play. Previously to that she wrote Enron (2010), a hugely successful piece about the infamous corporate fraud which transferred to the West End and Broadway after sell-out runs at both the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre. Her first play, The Sugar Syndrome (2003) won her the George Devine Award and was performed at the Royal Court.

Lucy is also an Associate Artist at the Old Vic Theatre. For television, she is the creator of the TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl which aired on ITV and Showtime and has just made a pilot TV episode for HBO starring Sarah Silverman. She is Co-Executive Producer and writer on HBO's media mogul drama, Succession. Lucy is fascinated by new technology and where it meets the arts. She wrote a weekly Tech column for the Observer newspaper and was Head Scene Writer for Bungie's massive first person shooter game, Destiny. She has also participated in a review of the creative industries on behalf of the British Labour Party and advised them on creative and digital arts. For comedy, Lucy has written for Frankie Boyle's New World Order (BBC, 2017) and appeared on the TV show as a guest. She is now working on a new TV series starring Billie Piper. Lucy is represented in the US by UTA.

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse-now in its 15th season-has been described by the New York Times as "a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around," and deemed "ever adventurous" by the Bay Area News Group. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award. KQED/NPR recently described the company: "San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English's commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage." San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.

*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association

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