The Effect opens at the National Theatre until September

Hearts and minds racing, Connie and Tristan are falling for each other fast. But is their sudden and intoxicating chemistry real, or a side effect of a new antidepressant?

As two young volunteers in a clinical drug trial, their illicit romance poses startling challenges for the supervising doctors.

Lucy Prebble’s play has just opened at the National Theatre in a new production directed by Jamie Lloyd.

Paapa Essiedu, who played Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the hook up-addicted rape victim in Michaela Coel’s TV drama I
May Destroy You, is joined by Taylor Russell who features in the film Waves and more recently, leads in Bones and All.

Lucy Prebble’s 2012 play The Effect is her most performed work.

However, the story of two people who fall in love on a drug trial but can’t work out what’s real and what’s chemical hasn’t been seen in London since its original run.

The Effect will run at the National Theatre until September 11.

Picture: Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell Picture: Marc Brenner