Lucy Prebble's THE EFFECT Will Open at The Shed in 2024

An exclusive U.S. presentation of a new production of Lucy Prebble's The  Effect is coming to The Shed next year! The acclaimed play examining love and ethics is by Prebble (HBO’s “Succession”) and directed  by Jamie Lloyd (Cyrano de Bergerac at BAM, A Doll’s House and Betrayal on Broadway). Presented with  The National Theatre in association with The Jamie Lloyd Company, The Effect plays for a strictly limited  four-week run in The Shed’s Griffin Theater, March 3 – 31, 2024, opening March 13.

The Effect features Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, The Lazarus Project) as “Tristan” and Taylor Russell (Bones and All, Waves) as “Connie”, participants in a clinical drug trial who begin an illicit romance,  alongside Michele Austin (This Is Going to Hurt, Cyrano de Bergerac) as “Dr. Lorna James” and Kobna  Holdbrook-Smith (Tina Turner: The Musical) as “Dr. Toby Sealey”. 

As Connie and Tristan explore their attraction to each other, how can they be sure it’s the real thing and  not an exhilarating side effect of the new antidepressant they’re taking? The supervising doctors begin to  ask themselves questions too: where do they draw the line between love and ethics? 

"The concurrent mastery of cinematic performances, sculptural lighting design, and immersive hip-hop  influenced score is just the kind of interdisciplinary theater making that is so compelling for our times. It’s  an honor to premiere The National Theater's production of this modern classic for our New York  audiences,” said Alex Poots, The Shed’s Artistic Director. 

“In this production, Jamie Lloyd, one of the world’s great theater directors, again demonstrates the  urgency of his work and its ability to attract diverse and intersectional audiences while Lucy Prebble, a  global icon of contemporary writing, displays her intellectual rigor and imagination in drawing us into the  moral dilemma of the play. Complemented by a revered cast, whose chemistry is compelling and  seductive, this production forces us to confront its exploration of courage and vulnerability along with the  characters on stage,” said Madani Younis, Chief Executive Producer. 

“Lucy Prebble’s The Effect first entranced our audiences at The National Theatre in 2012 and we were  ecstatic to have it back this summer with Jamie Lloyd's bold direction. This wonderful cast bought a new found intensity to this unique love story that I hope will resonate as beautifully in New York as it has in  London. We are delighted to be back presenting work in New York and collaborating with The Shed for  the first time,” Rufus Norris, National Theatre Director. 

The creative team includes set and costume design by Soutra Gilmour, lighting design by Jon Clark, composition by Michael “Mikey J” Asante, sound design by George Dennis, movement direction by Sarah  Golding and Yukiko Masui (SAY), fight direction by Kate Waters, intimacy coordination by Ingrid  Mackinnon, and casting by Alastair Coomer CDG. 

This production of The Effect was originally produced in London by The National Theatre in association  with The Jamie Lloyd Company and ran August 1 through October 7, 2023. The play was first produced in  2012 in London by The National Theatre. 

Tickets for The Effect go on sale on December 14 (Shed member presale begins on December 12). For  tickets and additional information about the production, visit TheShed.org. 

Cast and Creative Team Biographies

Michele Austin (Dr. Lorna James). Michele Austin’s theater credits include Cyrano de Bergerac in the West  End and at Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Hunt, Medea, and The Chain Play at the Almeida; White Teeth  at Kiln; Instructions for Correct Assembly; Breath, Boom and Been So Long at the Royal Court; The Seagull  at the Lyric Hammersmith; Pride and Prejudice at Sheffield Crucible; The House That Will Not Stand and  The Riots at the Tricycle; I Know How I Feel About Eve and Out in the Open at Hampstead; To Kill a  Mockingbird at Regent’s Park; Generations at the Young Vic; 50 Revolutions for Oxford Stage Company;  Our Country’s Good for Out of Joint; and It’s a Great Shame at Theatre Royal Stratford East. On television  she has appeared in “Boat Story”, “This Is Going to Hurt”, “The Dumping Ground”, “Meet the  Richardsons”, “Dark Heart”, “EastEnders”, “The Coroner”, “The Casual Vacancy”, “Death in Paradise”,  “Harry and Paul”, “Holby City”, “Peep Show”, “Silent Witness”, “Britannia High”, “Outnumbered”, “Never  Better”, “Secret Life”, “The Bill”, “The Wife of Bath”, “Ugetme”, “A&E,” “Clare in the Community”,  “Doctors”, “Gimme Gimme Gimme”, “Babes in the Wood”, “Kiss Me Kate”, and “The Perfect Blue”. Film  credits include The Children Act, What We Did on Our Holiday, Another Year, The Infidel, All or Nothing,  I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Second Nature, and Secrets and Lies. 

Paapa Essiedu (Tristan). In London’s West End, Paapa Essiedu’s credits include Pinter One and The  Moment Before I Am Powerful. Other productions include Hamlet, King Lear, The Merry Wives of Windsor,  and The Mouse and His Child for the RSC; A Number at the Old Vic; Passover at Kiln; The Convert at the  Young Vic; Racing Demon at Theatre Royal, Bath; Romeo and Juliet and The School for Scandal for  Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory; You for Me for You at the Royal Court; Have Mercy on Liverpool Street for Talawa; A Marked Man for HighTide; Black Jesus at the Finborough; Outside on the Street at the Arcola;  and Dutchman at the Orange Tree. Television credits include “Black Earth Rising”, “Black Mirror”, “The  Lazarus Project”, “The Capture”, “Anne Boleyn”, “Gangs of London”, “I May Destroy You”, “Kiri”, “Press”,  “Revolting”, “The Miniaturist”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Not Safe for Work”, and “Utopia”. 

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Dr. Toby Sealey). In London’s West End, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s theater  credits include TINA: The Tina Turner Musical and Hamlet. Other productions include The Low Road at the  Royal Court; Feast, The Changeling, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, A Respectable Wedding, and The Water  Engine at the Young Vic; Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at the Arcola; Detaining Justice, Seize the Day,  Category B, Fabulation, Gem of the Ocean, Walk Hard – Talk Loud, and The Playboy of the West Indies at  the Tricycle/Kiln; Love’s Labour’s Lost at Shakespeare’s Globe; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Manchester  Royal Exchange; and Mother Courage and Her Children at Nottingham Playhouse and on tour. Television  includes “The Veil”, “The Accused”, “His Dark Materials”, “Red Election”, “The Split”, “Ragdoll”,  “Motherland”, “Dark Heart”, “Class”, “Capital”, “The Last Panthers”, “Frankie”, “The Café”, “Sirens”,  “Sorry I’ve Got No Head”, “Taking the Flak”, “Harry and Paul”, “Star Stories”, “The Bill”, “Pulling”, “Little  Britain”, “Mike Bassett”, “Casualty”, and “Judge John Deed”. Film credits include Wonka, Apartment 47a,  The Gorge, Mary Poppins Returns, Gwen, Ghost Stories, Paddington 2, Justice League, The Commuter,  Doctor Strange, Worricker, and The Double. 

Taylor Russell (Connie). Taylor Russell is a Gotham Award–winning and Film Independent Spirit Award– nominated actress who most recently made her stage debut as Connie in The Effect at the National  Theatre in London. She gave critically acclaimed performances as Maren in Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and  All and Emily in Trey Edward Shults’s Waves. Recently, Russell appeared in Niclas Larsson’s feature film  Mother Couch, and upcoming, she will begin production on Na-Hong Jin's new film Hope. Russell served  as a producer and made her co-directorial debut with the award-winning short film The Heart Still Hums. 

Jamie Lloyd (Director). Jamie Lloyd’s directing credits for The Jamie Lloyd Company include Sunset  Boulevard (Savoy Theatre; Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director), A Doll’s House (Hudson  Theatre, New York; nominated for six 2023 Tony Awards including Best Direction of a Play and Best  Revival of a Play), The Seagull (Harold Pinter Theatre), Cyrano de Bergerac (Playhouse Theatre/Harold  Pinter Theatre/Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; Olivier Award for Best Revival), Betrayal (Pinter  at the Pinter, Harold Pinter Theatre/ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre; nominated for four 2021 Tony Awards  including Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play), Pinter One, Two, Three, Six, and Seven (Pinter at the Pinter, Harold Pinter Theatre), The Maids, The Homecoming, The Ruling Class, Richard III, The Pride, The Hothouse, and Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios). 

Lucy Prebble (Playwright) is a writer for film, television, games, and theater. She was an executive  producer and writer on the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award–winning HBO drama “Succession”,  for which she has also won a WGA and a PGA Award. She is the writer and co-creator of “I Hate Suzie” and “I Hate Suzie Too”, which was nominated for five BAFTAs including Best Drama, Best Writer, and Best  Actress and won her the Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer. She is also the creator and writer  of the TV series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” (ITV/Showtime). For theater, Prebble recently had a rewritten  version of her award-winning play, The Effect, at The National Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd. She wrote  the political and emotional meta-thriller A Very Expensive Poison, which was a sell-out, five-star hit for the  Old Vic in 2019 and was Olivier nominated for Best New Play. She is the writer of the infamous Enron, a  hugely successful piece about the infamous corporate fraud, which transferred to the West End after sell out runs at both the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre. Her first play, The Sugar Syndrome (2003), won her the George Devine Award and was performed at the Royal Court.

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