Theater: The Effect throws darts at psychiatry, pharma but, overmedicated, falls short

The Effect, a new play by Brit playwright Lucie Prebble (b. 1981), now playing in the West Village, sets a broad agenda. This dark, offbeat love story is set during a live-in residential clinical trial for a new dopamine agonist designed to treat depression. Like all new drugs, potential side effects must be tested by trying it on "normal" volunteers-- assuming that young people paid to live in a dorm-like setting for a week are normal. The play tackles many controversies, e.g. paid pharma trials, the effect of psychiatric drugs on core personality, and the quasi-ethical cutting of corners sometimes done by investigators eager to observe their desired drug effect. All this plus two young drug volunteers who fall in love (is it drug-induced?) and two researchers with a romantic history. This is a lot of plot twists and agendas to include in a two hour play, and the playwright does manage to do all this at least without confusion, and with some clever twists and turns. But, no matter how clever the scenario, plays generally rise and fall on how deep and convincing the characters are, collectively and individually. In this Ms. Prebble fails.  The characters say very little that is interesting, and the love interests did not grab me at all, lacking romance, convincingly portrayed lust, or even interesting conversation. The seemingly opressive effect the clinical trial had on all the characters was not matched by sufficiently emotive or convincing diologue, giving the whole thing the feel of overambitious politically-driven community theater. Encouragingly, the young playwright, who has previously tackled such news-driven topics as eating disorders and the ENRON scandal, did not insert pontificating monologues to drive home her points on science, letting us draw our own conclusions. And the topic of what mental illness is, and how to treat it, is timely (see this Atlantic interview for more). But without more compelling characters, the play falls flat, sort of like theater overdosed on Haldol (or your favorite sedating antipsychotic, before or after FDA approval).