The Effect of Love – in 4D
The Effect, staged by Pangdemonium at the Victoria Theatre and deftly directed by Tracie Pang, does not disappoint.
The two young leads, Connie Hall (played by Nikki Muller) and Triston Frey (by Linden Furnell), quickly put the “desire” to the meaning of love in the equation. The effect is inevitable: two desirable and desirous bodies trapped in a laboratory for 4 weeks and put on a pill with increasing dosage that alters perspectives.
Muller and Furnell are a delight to watch. Both are easy on the eyes, both have great timing, and above all, they possess believable chemistry with each other. Their grips on the two characters are at once tight and relaxed – very much like what good sex, I mean good love, should be.
As a parallel plot, Dr Lorna James (Tan Kheng Hua) has a once-off misbegotten affair with Dr Toby Sealey (Adrian Pang), now her boss. Dr James is desperately trying to reconnect with Dr Sealy and wondering if what they had is real. All this tension and conflict are well handled by these capable actors and their compelling performances.
In the end, it is “depression” that ruled the day. When true love fails, depression sets in. Perhaps the antithesis of love is not hate. It is depression.
Will we be able to find the cure to depression? Perhaps with a pill that The Effect is alluding to, and the side effect of which is love?
This clever and sophisticated production questions the effect but sets us to think about the answer.
The clinical (in all senses) set created by Wai Yin Kwok provides the right environment for us to check our reality. The lighting (by James Tan) is put to great effect, complemented by the sound (by Guo Ningru) and projection (by Genevive Peck).
It is almost heart wrenching to see Dr James at the end of the production struggling with her decision whether she should take the pill to treat her depression. But what of her desires? Her denial and her desperation?
But then again, what is love?