The Effect (National Theatre) London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (36)
See it if stunning performances, great chemistry between the leads
Don't see it if very stripped back
See it if You want to scratch your head and keep asking the same questions the actors themselves are asoing. You like endings up for interpretation
Don't see it if You prefer something more entertaining than something focus based and thought provoking
See it if you like plays focusing on relationships between the characters and lots of dialogue
Don't see it if You don't like minimal staging
See it if you are interested in (double) blind scientific trials, ethical questions and social interactions in high-pressure conditions
Don't see it if you dislike loud music, blasted at the audience throughout the play in a misguided attempt to make theatre cool for a younger crowd
See it if You like small, psychological show. It's not a thriller exactly, but it has a thriller vibe. OUTSTANDING sound design.
Don't see it if You want lots of action. This is mostly all talk.
See it if For great performances, particularly Michele Austin
Don't see it if You are after something more lighthearted
See it if You enjoy more experimental theatre.
Don't see it if You enjoy a journey in a story, I found that not much actually happened in the play. Read more
See it if You like a good plot and great acting, big ideas, well designed and staged.
Don't see it if You don’t like serious plays
Critic Reviews (11)
“A... theatrical dissonance renders the ending underwhelming and the production more interesting than entertaining. But despite its imperfections the decision to revive ‘The Effect’ is a laudable one.”
Read more
“A play of ideas about the way our brains work is welded to a ruthless 100-minute emotional arc, laced with wit and given a bittersweet ending. It receives a typically stark, urgent production from Jamie Lloyd which left me impressed and stimulated but also weirdly flat.”
Read more
“In a play that turns on the question of how much emotions can be manipulated by medication, the director’s sleight of hand makes you even more aware of the script’s schematic structure, not to mention its implausible aspects.”
Read more
“ ‘The Effect’ makes you realise just how much theatre has missed [Lucy Prebble’s] razor-sharp writing, her willingness to play with form to tackle huge subjects in a small space...Part of the power of the play is that it raises as many questions as it answers, and values emotion just as much as debate.”
Read more
“It all adds up to a thoroughly theatrical experience, one in which you’re hyper-aware of the show’s liveness: what’s happening on stage, and how you’re responding to it in the moment – or even contributing yourself. Thrillingly effective.”
Read more
"The preoccupation here is nothing less existentially weighty than free will and the human condition, yet both play and production are as effortlessly deft as they are astute. It’s the kind of theatre that lives with you, turning over in the mind long after the experiment ends."
Read more
“Lucy Prebble’s 2012 play – revived at the National Theatre in a flashy Jamie Lloyd production – perceptively shows that when it comes to mental health, we’re all still fumbling around in the dark, like medieval physicians who’ve dropped their tallow candles.”
Read more
“It tantalisingly asks many more questions than it answers. Food for the brain in the bucket, not so nourishing for the heart. Although it’s a bit too long, and although it doesn’t match the greatness of much that has come since, I still love Lucy.”
Read more