If love is a drug, they’re addicted.

The Effect

By Lucy Prebble

16 APR - 11 MAY 2024 — FINAL WEEK

About.

Company

Auckland Theatre Company

Venue

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Duration

2 hours and 20 minutes, including interval

Advisory

The production contains sexual references, offensive language, physical aggression, seizure depiction, and references to depression, anxiety, suicide, and strobe light effects. This production includes the use of realistic organ props.

A sizzling chemistry lesson from Succession’s writer, Lucy Prebble, on whether love sits in the heart or in the brain.

“I’ll tell you what I want. I don’t want to reason with you. I want to know right now, in this moment, what you feel.”

When Connie and Tristan sign up for a clinical trial to test a new antidepressant, they fall for each other. Hard. Sealed off from the outside world, they’re ready to break all the rules. But are their feelings real or nothing more than a side effect from the drug that’s firing a dopamine hit to their brains?

British playwright Lucy Prebble (Executive Producer of Succession and Co-Writer of I Hate Suzie) shows all the razor-sharp flair that made her a star writer on the smash hit Succession in this deft dissection of medical ethics and the nature of human attraction – fresh from a critically acclaimed 2023 season at London’s National Theatre.

As the couple’s illicit romance throws the trial off course, tensions flare between the two supervising psychiatrists, who turn out to have a messy history of their own.

And, as both the dosage of the drug and the emotional stakes increase, a wider debate plays out on the medicalisation of depression for profit by the pharmaceutical industry. “There’s no such thing as side effects. They’re just effects you can’t sell.”

A provocative delve into the mysteries of human attraction, this chemical romance keeps you guessing as it asks which is more powerful – the head or the heart?

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Tickets.

REVIEWS

“A THEATRICAL MASTERPIECE”
– Denizen

THE EFFECT IS A COMPELLING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING EXPLORATION OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
– Andrew Whiteside

“TENDER, THRILLING AND ELEGANTLY BRUTAL”
The New Zealand Herald

THE EFFECT IS A SUPERB DISSECTION OF THE HEART AS THE ENERGY SOURCE DRIVING ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
Red Raven

Show Programme

WAYS TO SAVE

Pay What You Wish

If you’ve never been to the theatre before, we have one night to give it a go risk-free. It’s first in, best seats, with the performance ticketed as General Admission. Tickets on sale 3 weeks before the performance on Tue 23 April.

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SUNDAY FORUM

Stay after the performance to hear from a special guest speaker who delves more deeply into the world and themes of the play. Enrich your theatre-going experience with a thought-provoking discussion and gain insight into the wider context of the work. Come intrigued; leave inspired.

Sun 21 April 6:20pm
ASB Waterfront Theatre
Free
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ACCESSIBILITY

NZSL-Interpreted

by Platform Interpreting NZ
Sat 11 May 8:00pm
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Audio-Described & Touch Tour

by Audio Described Aotearoa
Sun 28 Apr 4:00pm
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