What is love?
People have struggled for centuries – no, millennia – trying to articulate an
answer to this fundamental question without too much clarity one way or
another. When you’re in love, it’s the most beautiful feeling of sharing
yourself with another person; when you’re not in love it’s cruel and bitter and
ugly. It’s something so deep it’s unreachable and unavoidable; something so
intricate, yet so easily manipulated and crippled; the most blissful, merciless
torture ever experienced by anyone on this earth; that’s what love is. And yet,
apart from all of these emotional descriptions, love is a chemical process in
our bodies and brains, a chemical which stimulates and colours our senses,
moods, actions, bodily processes and decisions. In Lucy Prebble’s latest play The
Effect, produced here by Sydney Theatre Company with Queensland Theatre
Company, the clinical and physical reactions to love are examined amidst a drug
trial for a new antidepressant, as real emotions and biophysical responses
collide with chemically-induced stimulants.
Prebble’s play
unfolds across a span of about six weeks, from the first day of the trial to
sometime in the near future following its apparent conclusion. We first meet a
two young people in their late twenties – Connie is a psychology student, while
Tristan is a charismatic young man who has participated in a number of drug
trials previously. Observing them are Dr Lorna James, a clinical psychiatrist,
and Toby, her superior, but they too have a history; soon, the four of them are
embroiled in a clash of ethics and perceptions, and it’s clear that nothing in
life, as in love, is ever truly objective.
