'The Effect' Review: Can love and chemistry meet in the middle?
16 Mar 2024
The Examiner
![The Effect Review Can love and chemistry meet in the middle](/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=%2Fuploads%2Fnews%2F55%2F5596%2F6%2F5596625-the-effect-review-can-love-and-chemistry-meet-in-the-middle.jpg&w=750&hash=2e0e54e51318cf40e45a4563ca6e3242)
IO Performance's new show is brimming with interesting questions and stellar performances.
The only extravagances are projected videos on blank corflute around the stage - often of psychedelic brain waves, sometimes the actors faces being recorded live - and a deejay playing live in a central recess. Those visual ideas come out as somewhat superfluous, perhaps a little half-baked attempts at a voyeuristic lilt. We are watching the drug trial as it is being watched, recorded, etc. Compared with the musical contributions, which feel integral to the ambience of Francis' production, the visuals are more style than substance.