The Effect, NUTS, Kambri Theatre, April 24-27

 

I enjoy watching performances by NUTS - there's a certain power and passion in what they do, plus a more experimental range of programming (NUTS has done two productions of "When The Rain Stops Falling", two Martin McDonagh plays, plus plays like this and "Mr Burns" while a lot of Canberra's other companies have been doing more familiar work). You do have to bring your expectations of student-level theatre (low production budgets, occasional less experienced actors, all cast members being student-aged, losing the effect of some characters clearly being older than others) with you but it's often worth it to see productions with this kind of passion, both in the cast and in the audience (it's also a nice surprise to be one of the older people in the audience at 50 years old, something I don't really experience much anywhere else). 

In this case, Lucy Preeble's "The Effect" is a play that's had a strong production history elsewhere - it's a small cast play hitting on hot-button topics of mental health and medication, with a powerful love story at the centre along with powerful questions of medical ethics. Paris Scharkie directs a strong production in the round, with simple staging that lets the script and performances carry most of the challenges of the play, along with two projection screens to track the medical trials that make up the course of the story. There's a clear deliniation in costumes - the two patients in grey tracksuits, the two doctors in black scrubs and the crew and ushers in medical lab coats - that helps with immersion, and some tight lighting design from Charlotte Harris to isolate the stage into sections and serve the mood. 

The quartet of actors are all strong presences - Tash Lyall as Connie, thoughtful and concerned; Eli Powles, impulsive and creative; Amy Gottischalk, sensitive and engaged; and Isaac Sewak, bold and full of bravado - and it's a delight to watch them play against each other. There's a couple of moments of weakness which is partially in staging - theatres in the round with no or limited raking in the seating have to be very careful about sightlines and projection and there's a couple of moments that are lost either due to dialogue not being heard or moments not being visible, but mostly the show is captured very strongly. 

It's certainly worth catching this strong script being given a  powerful and effective production - and to wrestle with the questions it raises.