Theatre lovers heading to Ireland this month are spoiled for choice, whether it’s enjoying work by a trio of master playwrights or witnessing magic at the end of World War II or pondering a hilarious alternate history. There’s also love, or something like it anyway, in The Effect. If love is just a chemical reaction in the brain, when two volunteers on a drugs trial for a new antidepressant become attracted to each other, is it real or just a side-effect? If you feel like you love someone, does it really matter why?
Rough Magic Theatre Company is presenting the Irish premiere of the award-winning play by Lucy Prebble (the creator of Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl) at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin. Director Ronan Phelan says “Lucy Prebble takes on huge themes of love and sorrow fearlessly, approaching them with wit and vitality … Once you get past the initial euphoria of romantic love – you have to ask where the feelings come from? Where’s the source? And in the end, the fact is there are no answers – there is no evidence. That’s what this play is really about, for me. That the act of loving is always an act of faith.” The Effect runs from March 23 to April 1.
