The Effect, a The National Theatre and Headlong co-production, opened at the

National's Cottesloe Theatre on 13 November 2012. Directed by Rupert Goold

2012 won critics circle theatre award for best new play.
Billie Piper won an Olivier for best Actress and Anastasia Hille won an Olivier
for best actress in a supporting role in 2013.

A revival of the play was planned at the Boulevard Theatre London in March
2020 with Anthony Neilson directing and featuring Eric Kofi-Abrefa as
Tristan, Christine Entwisle as Dr James, Tim McMullan as Toby and Kate
O'Flynn as Connie.[10] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United
Kingdom the play was postponed.[11]

The play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine,
alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction.

The Effect is born out of Lucy Prebble's reaction to the disastrous

pharmaceutical drug trial run by the American company Parexel in 2006, at
Northwick Park Hospital in North London.

Lucy Ashton Prebble (born 18 December 1980) is a British playwright and

producer. She is the author of the plays The Sugar Syndrome, The Effect,
ENRON and A Very Expensive Poison.

Lucy Prebble likes to adapt to changes within her play. For example the girl who
played Connie had a foreign accent so Lucy changed the character of Connie to
an international student.