The Effect

The Effect showcases the finest acting you will see from four of Australia’s top actors. Not light entertainment, however, it’s rather an intelligent examination of what love is under the metaphorical microscope of drama.

Two young people are paid volunteers for the clinical trial of a new anti-depressant wonder-drug: Connie (Anna McGahan), seriously committed to the exercise after recent psychology studies and Tristan (Mark Leonard Winter), affable serial volunteer for tests of this type - he is saving toward a holiday.

Conducting their five-week trial, each week with an increasing dosage, is Dr James (Angie Millikin). She is carefully precise in her observations of both their medical and psychological states but reveals her human side in a brilliant scene with the confused and concerned Connie, who admits that she has fallen in love with Tristan and has had sex with him. Dopamine changes that accompany love risk the validity of the trial by masking the drug’s effect.

Dr James’s ‘human side’ involves her neurologist supervisor, Toby (Eugene Gilfedder). They differ in depression theories, which appear to have affected an earlier relationship.

Renée Mulder’s cold hospital set of black reflective tiles and white playing space with fluoros dominating Ben Hughes’s lighting and Guy Webster’s subtle sound backing support the emotional and scientific mood of the piece.

Engaging, challenging, but don’t expect answers.

Jay McKee

Photographer: Rob Maccoll