“Beautiful and compelling.”
“An intense and intoxicating encounter.”
A sizzling chemistry lesson from Succession’s writer, Lucy Prebble, on whether love sits in the heart or in the brain.
“I’ll tell you what I want. I don’t want to reason with you. I want to know right now, in this moment, what you feel.”
When Connie and Tristan sign up for a clinical trial to test a new antidepressant, they fall for each other. Hard. Sealed off from the outside world, they’re ready to break all the rules. But are their feelings real or nothing more than a side effect from the drug that’s firing a dopamine hit to their brains?
British playwright Lucy Prebble (Executive Producer of Succession and Co-Writer of I Hate Suzie) shows all the razor-sharp flair that made her a star writer on the smash hit Succession in this deft dissection of medical ethics and the nature of human attraction – fresh from a critically acclaimed 2023 season at London’s National Theatre.
As the couple’s illicit romance throws the trial off course, tensions flare between the two supervising psychiatrists, who turn out to have a messy history of their own.
And, as both the dosage of the drug and the emotional stakes increase, a wider debate plays out on the medicalisation of depression for profit by the pharmaceutical industry. “There’s no such thing as side effects. They’re just effects you can’t sell.”
A provocative delve into the mysteries of human attraction, this chemical romance keeps you guessing as it asks which is more powerful – the head or the heart?
Event and Ticketing Details
Suitability
Suitable for ages 7+.
Some adult themes, simulated warfare and a small amount of coarse language.
Ticket collection
Tickets for this performance can only be mailed out or collected from the Box Office (no print at home tickets are available). ID will be needed for ticket collection.
Advisory
This show includes the occasional use of haze.