Harriet Bridgwater stars as Connie in Tristan McDaniel’s production of Lucy Prebble’s “The Effect” at Thymele Arts, running from June 12th to 14th. The Effect – BroadwayWorld.
Bringing a beautiful British play in front of American audiences. The Effect is a play written by award-winning British playwright Lucy Prebble. The text explores whether love is simply a chemical reaction or something beyond scientific comprehension.
The story follows two participants of a medical drug trial for a new antidepressant. Tristan is a charismatic, easy-going young backpacker, participating in the trial for money. And Connie is an intellectually oriented psychology student, aiming to strengthen her understanding of the field with hands-on, practical experience.
Onstage, Harriet compellingly plays Connie, as an eagerly curious psychology student whose thinking is dominated by the rational, analytic left side of the brain. Connie conducts herself as an academic, and her ideologies are all reasoned through science. In comparison, Tristan is contrastingly opposite, with his ideologies rooted in spirituality and religion.
Chemistry sparks between the two, but as the dopamine-increasing experimental drug is pumping through their veins and increasing with each dosage, the characters pose the question, “Is this a genuine connection or a side-effect of the drug?”
Another question arises as the fact emerges that in every trial there are participants on the placebo, which poses the question “Are they even on the drug or are they experiencing a placebo response?” and “Which one of them has real feelings while the other is infatuated through an intoxicant?”
The audience sees the psycho-physical effects through the actor’s specific physicality. Tristan and Harriet experience different symptoms and mood changes, which occur rapidly and in increasing intensity. Highlighting their esteemed technical ability as actors.
Harriet gave a stunning performance, displaying impressive acting talent as Connie, experiencing a full spectrum of nuanced psychological effects. Showcasing vast flexibility and emotional versatility, from giddy intoxication and pure euphoria to frantic paranoia and paralyzing depression.
Throughout the play, we see Connie wrestling between her logical mind and the suppressed desires of her heart. Harriet mesmerizingly gives an exceptionally truthful performance, as the audience observes the effects of the drug in real life.
Meanwhile, the interwoven, adjacent plot line centers around Dr. Lorna James (Ansley Hutchinson), the leading psychologist of the trial, who faces her own history with battling depression. And her estranged relationship to Dr. Toby Seale (Braden Lynch), who has a larger belief system surrounding depression as solely a physically determined, hormonal imbalance. He believes that it should only be treated with prescribed medication. Whilst Dr. Lorna James, through her personal lens, places a stronger belief in cognitive therapy – addressing life circumstances as a predominant cause for the condition.
Each professor presents well-thought-out opinions, always backed by science or personal experience. Although their opinions differ slightly, this provides great insight from varying perspectives about the condition.
The structure of the play enables the audience to not only observe the participants, Tristan and Connie, but also observe the experiment leaders and how their experiences are mirrored within the two lovers’ experience.
Amongst a star-studded cast, featuring Braden Lynch, playing Dr. Toby Seale (known for “Love, Death & Robots” and as the head of Braden Lynch Studios), Braden also co-directed the project. Ansley Hutchinson stars as Dr. Lorna James, the experiment head (known for “The Marauders: Full Moon”), and Tristan is played by Tristan McDaniel (known for “They’re In The Water.”)
Other credits include Peter Fanelli, who is the Technical Director for the production, and Daphne Carroll, who is the Assistant Technical Director and Lighting Designer.
