THE EFFECT Now Running at Shaker Bridge Theatre Through Early February

Shaker Bridge Theatre has opened The Effect by Lucy Prebble, the third production in the 17th season, running through February 9.

Hearts racing. Minds reeling. Knees buckling. Connie and Tristan have palpable chemistry - or is it a side effect of a new antidepressant? They are volunteers in a clinical trial, but their sudden and illicit romance forces the supervising doctors to face off over the ethical consequences of their work. The Effect takes on our pill-popping culture with humor and scintillating drama.

The cast of The Effect consists of some returning actors and some new to Shaker Bridge Theatre. Susan Haefner (Dr. Lorna James) returns to SBT in her seventh production after last appearing in 2023's It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Susan is a Broadway veteran, having appeared in State Fair, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and 42nd Street. Recent regional credits: Northern Stage (Beauty And The Beast), Theater at Monmouth (Always...Patsy Cline), and Weston Theater Company (What the Constitution Means to Me). Tim Rush (Dr. Toby Sealey) also returns to SBT in his seventh production after last performing in It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Regional credits include: Weston Theatre Company (Our Town and All My Sons), Triad Stage (The Member of the Wedding and The Little Foxes), and Barrington Stage (The Things They Carried).

Haulston Mann (Tristan) has been seen across the country in Romeo and Juliette and Rocky Horror Picture Show. Recent TV credits include Detective Clem Shirk in Law and Order: SVU. Sophia Grasso (Connie) makes her SBT debut. She recently starred alongside Johnny Simmons and Marcus Giamatti in an NYU MFA proof of concept and starred in a horror film on Cape Cod.

SBT founder and artistic director Bill Coons will direct this production, one of many in his 17 seasons since opening Shaker Bridge. Coons says the story is about "Two kids falling in love. Are they or is it a reaction to the circumstances?" The play asks the question, "What is love and why do we need it?"

Lucy Prebble (playwright) is a writer for film, television, games, and theatre. She was an Executive Producer and writer on the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy award-winning HBO drama Succession, for which she has also won a WGA and a PGA Award.

She is the writer and co-creator of I Hate Suzie and I Hate Suzie Too, which was nominated for five BAFTAs, including Best Drama, Best Writer, and Best Actress, and won her the Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer. It was a huge hit for Sky, topping many major publications' lists for best shows of 2020 in both the UK and the US, where it is available on HBO Max. She is also the creator and writer of the TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV/Showtime) and made a pilot for HBO starring Sarah Silverman.

For theatre, Lucy recently had a rewritten version of her award-winning play, The Effect, at The National Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd. She has written the political and emotional meta-thriller A Very Expensive Poison, which was a sell-out, five-star hit for the Old Vic in 2019 and was Olivier-nominated for Best New Play. It won the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play and Best New Production of a Play at the Broadway World Awards. It also won her the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. She is also the writer of Enron, a hugely successful piece about the infamous corporate fraud, which transferred to the West End 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.

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