'The Effect'
is the result of a partnership between the Coliseum Theatre and emerging
Manchester-based company ‘Play With Fire’, giving a taste of what to expect
when the new 170-seat Studio theatre on Union Street opens in 2020, allowing
more opportunities for smaller theatre companies to present challenging and
daring pieces of writing.
Writer Lucy
Prebble has certainly found an interesting premise with 'The Effect', suggesting that love is a naturally occurring chemical
phenomenon and asking if it could be created artificially. This taps into a very
modern mind-set that seemingly everything that occurs or however people act and
re-act have specific, identifiable causes. A child is no longer lazy; they have
‘attention deficit syndrome’, a man is no longer a reckless and foolish
gambler; he has a ‘predisposition to taking risks’ and so it goes on. If all
actions are on this argument, just the effect of subtle chemical imbalances in
the brain, can everything not be rectified by artificially manipulating the
brain with other chemicals? With the above mind-set, two doctors set out to
prove the point by trialling a new kind of anti-depressant on two young
volunteers.
The
set of two white low-beds surrounded by neon-blue lights and flanked by
monitoring screens excellently provides a cold, clinical backdrop to the
experiment, with the guinea pigs dressed in white track suits and attended to
by ‘people in white coats’. There is a possible sinister under-current to the
apparent care of the medical staff (think of Malcolm McDowell at the end of ‘A
Clockwork Orange’) and we do not expect everything to work out without casualties.
There is good on-stage chemistry (aside from
the drugs being administered!) between Elaine
McNicol as Connie and Daniel
Bradford as Tristan, the volunteers for the test, each going on personal
journeys which diverge from the intended manipulation of their mind-sets. We
see both characters undergo emotional challenges, as the ideas behind the
experiment are tested to destruction. Robert
Kingsland presents a strong-image as Dr Toby, who at times has an almost
Frankenstein-like self-assurance, believing he is the man who will take
medical science on a giant leap forward. Karren
Winchester as his associate Lorna, brings over a very different medical persona,
with her humanity progressively coming to the fore from beneath a clinical
exterior.
There are several great set-pieces in 'The Effect'. Dr Toby gave a memorable
speech in which he took out a brain and addressed it as if he was Hamlet
speaking to Horatio. Connie’s attempts to challenge the doctors were at times
reminiscent of scenes from ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ and Tristan
underwent a moving emotional transformation from his bed. In another bed scene,
Dr Toby is forced to challenge his own ideas about what constitutes feelings of
love and in another scene we saw Lorna strip down emotionally.
With so many of the plays at Oldham Coliseum
over the last few years having had a local and left-wing political emphasis,
‘The Effect’ is the kind of play which it would be great to see a lot of at this
theatre. The issues are powerful, real and relevant, without being located in
any geographical or political centre. It is a play which genuinely sets the
audience questioning their own feeling towards others.
It's also very
encouraging to see a small, emerging theatre company given the opportunity to
shine on the big stage and hopefully this will lead not just to other new
companies getting the chance to mount productions at Oldham Coliseum but also
more new writing being staged as well.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 25/9/18
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