The Effect

So... Lucy Prebble has a knack for details.  You might remember her for the musical, Enron.  It was a hit in London, but not so much here. (Those Brits love their American flop stories!).  In her latest installment playing down at the Barrow Street Theatre, Ms. Prebble dives not into Wall Street and finance but the the world of clinical trials, pharmacology, and medicine.  And by dive in - I mean she goes in deep.  Clearly she studied the details, the issues, and the minutia of the topic.  What she has written is what one might expect from a doctor turned playwright.

Helming this production is the lovely (in an anxious kind of way) Susannah Flood (Connie Hall) and scruffily-hipster handsome Carter Hudson (Tristan Frey).  As individuals who have joined a clinical trial of a drug that may or may not have a certain side effect - we find them entangled in a relationship of sorts.  Steve Key ((Dr. Toby Sealey) and Kati Brazda (Dr Laura James) are the medical professionals behind the study who themselves have a bit of history themselves.

The details of the clinical trial and the drug's side effect are entangled between both the patients and the doctors.  The mystery is revealed about the mid-point of Act 1 - who is on the drug and who is not - and how does that affect the patients.  By the end of the the study (and Act II) we get yet another curve-ball - and the patients are affected.

Ms. Prebble kept us on our toes the entire performance through her twists and turns.  Ms. Flood and Mr. Hudson kept us entertained with their flirtations and connection.  The show educates, informs, and entertains all at the same time.  The relationship between the doctors is a bit less fleshed out and could use some more refinement  - or more accurately clarity.

Perhaps Ms. Prebble will get an opportunity to have another clinical trial on a larger stage.  One might speculate the results would be positive.

The Substance of Fire

Jon Robin Baitz' story is re-told at Second Stage this spring.  I didn't know at the time but it was previously a movie in 1996 with a great cast (Sarah Jessica Parker, Ron Rifkin, Timothy Hutton, Tony Goldwyn, Dick Latessa and Eric Bogosian) and an original play before that in 1991 at Playwrights Horizons - staring both Rifkin and Parker among originals too.

Knowing this now, I have to imagine it was a fairly decent original run for award winning director Daniel Sullivan.  This production, however, left me a bit dazed and confused.  Act I in which the guns are drawn and tensions mount is tight, crisp, and in this production, well acted and packed a punch.  I was hooked.

However, perhaps the downfall of the original production (I don't know) was also the meandering and lackluster, and frankly bizarre act II.  It certainly was here.  Act II introduces a new character and quite honestly a diversion and story line that came out of left field.   So different was act II from act I that I felt it was an entirely different play.  Two of the characters (siblings) from act I simply disappeared and we are only tacitly filled in on the remaining sibling's status.  The 3 siblings - Halley Feiffer (Sarah), Daniel Eric Gold (Martin), Carter Hudson (Aaron) all deserve kudos as does their father Isaac - John Noble.

In the end - it was tremendous disappointment and after such a great act I, it was that much more deflating.  The cast was magnificent and I enjoyed them all.  However, I did think that Charlayne Woodard (Marge Hackett) overplayed the part (or at least she may have been directed to).

A tough topic - Holocaust survivor coming to grips with the demise of his company as his family struggles to keep things going.  I'm still not sure if in the end he was crazy or not.

I presume Mr. Baitz leaves that up to us to judge.