"The result is a play that thinks and feels like no other I can remember: unapologetically intellectual, but always more relatable and visceral than abstruse...Cromer knows how to yank you into plays, even against your will, and that gift is in full force here. It wouldn't matter if the acting weren't convincing, but it is....Maybe science can't create love. But it can create engrossing, enveloping theatre, as this experiment of Prebble's so solidly proves."
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"A provocative and powerful drama…The first act of 'The Effect' is mainly expository…By the end of the first act we are sitting on the edge of our seats to discover where all of this is headed…Cromer’s cast is as excellent…'The Effect' is provocative and powerful and should stimulate much discussion...Director David Cromer and his excellent quartet of actors will have you hanging on every word even as you think you know where this is all going–and you would be wrong."
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"The themes and characters draw you in and leave you with much to think about...Even though I found the parallels between the two couples somewhat too schematic, this is an intelligent, exciting play with lots of very sharp dialogue...Fortunately David Cromer's pristine staging is smartly focused on that compelling dialogue and on the performances...The actors are the play's heart and soul."
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"A sugar coated, occasionally witty look at the situation...There are good performances all around but outstanding is that by Carter Hudson...'The Effect,' frankly, begins to have little effect over the course of two hours."
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"Under David Cromer’s careful direction, the ensemble cast members deliver spirited performances and maneuver skillfully through the playwright’s plot surprises and thematic strands...The lack of the ability to connect in any meaningful way with the play’s principals leaves 'The Effect' with a less than satisfying effect on the audience...Despite this, the play is an interesting exploration into the vicissitudes of love and its provenance."
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"'The Effect' has a solid plot; seeds planted early sprout a few surprises...The plot and the deceptively straightforward, largely restrained performances seem mostly in service to a series of intriguing questions threaded throughout the two-hour play, sometimes dramatically, sometimes in the form of debate...The playwright does not offer pat, authoritative-sounding theories to answer these questions. But the warmth, pathos and humor in her writing suggests where she stands."
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"Lucy Prebble‘s 'The Effect' is half good. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong half...The physical side of the production is stunning and complicated in its mix of the eerie and the sterile...Much of it is not drama. It’s just speeches, one after the other. One doctor even begins to sound a lot like Tom Cruise. Remember when the movie star went off on Brooke Shields years ago because she treated her postpartum depression with drugs? That’s where Prebble takes 'The Effect.'"
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"A bracing investigation into the nature of love that stimulates both the head and the heart. And David Cromer, perhaps the smartest director working today, draws out all the nuances of the competing arguments in a sleek production...The best parts of this production are the performances...Particularly Hudson, who emits the idiosyncratic charms of a young Jeff Goldblum...I fell in love with both him and Flood—and with this play."
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