The National Theatre has announced a new production of Lucy Prebble’s award-winning play The Effect, starring Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell.
Produced in association with The Jamie Lloyd Company, and directed by Jamie Lloyd (Cyrano de Bergerac, A Doll’s House), the play will run in the Lyttelton Theatre at the National from 1 August 2023.
The revival of this funny and intimate examination of love and ethics will star Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, The Capture) as Tristan and Taylor Russell (Bones and All) as Connie, with further casting to be announced.
Lucy Prebble is currently a writer and executive producer on HBO’s Succession, and her previous plays include The Sugar Syndrome, ENRON and A Very Expensive Poison. In 2020 Lucy Prebble was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Joining Jamie Lloyd in the creative team will be set and costume designer Soutra Gilmour, lighting designer Jon Clark, composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, sound designer George Dennis, movement directors Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui (SAY), fight director Kate Waters, intimacy co-ordinator Ingrid Mackinnon and casting director Alastair Coomer CDG.
The Effect first premiered at the National Theatre in 2012, and won the 2012 Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.
The play was to be revived in 2020 at the Boulevard Theatre in Soho starring Eric Kofi Abrefa (Jurassic World ), Christina Entwisle (Vera), Tim McMullan (The Crown) and Kate O’Flynn (Happy Go Lucky), but was cancelled because of Covid.
Director of the National Theatre Rufus Norris said in a statement: “To have Jamie Lloyd returning to the National Theatre with his production of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect – a timelessly prescient play from this singular writer – is a particular joy, not least because of the two wonderful lead actors Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell.”
Also announced today by the National Theatre is their major new stage production of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, coming to the National in November 2023 starring Katherine Kingsley.
More about The Effect tickets at the National Theatre
