BY KAREN BOSSICK

“The Effect” revolves around two patients who fall in love after meeting at a clinical trial where they are testing an antidepressant.

But all is not as simple as it might seem on the surface. Are their euphoric feelings for one another real? Or, is their infatuation the result of the drug they’re taking?

Even as they question their love for one another, their sudden, illicit romance forces their supervising doctors to face off over the ethical consequences of their work.

The Spot takes on Lucy Prebble’s “The Effect” tonight through Sunday, April 20, at The Spot Theater at 220 Lewis St. in Ketchum.

The play delves into the ethics of the pharmacological industry, while laying bare the struggles of mental illness. It looks at the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde effect of drugs which help person successfully navigate their way through life while, perhaps, also presenting obnoxious side effects.

Pulsating music and swirling lights showcase the chaos taking place inside the young couple’s brains as they spiral up and down from the effects of the drugs while their vitals run across a screen above.

And it’s all offset by the presence of a brain in a bucket.

The play was written by Lucy Prebble, a co-producer and writer for HBO’s hit show “Succession,” a black comedy-drama about a family that controls the biggest media and entertainment company in the world.

The Spot’s “The Effect” stars Anik Zarkos and Kagen Albright, both of whom grew up acting in The Spot productions before moving to New York to study theatre. Their supervising doctors are played by Yanna Lantz and David Janeski.

The play is directed by Brett Moellenberg with Samuel Mollner serving as technical and lighting director, Kevin Wade designing the sound and Lantz, the costumes.

Kagen Albright said the play is beautiful, inquisitive, sexy, and heartbreaking all at once.

“The central questions of this play revolve around love and ethics, both of which our country finds itself in short supply of. And it speaks to what it means to be a human being taught between those things and the absence of them,” he said.

Albright said the play hits close to home for him.

“I personally take anti-depressants, and I can say that they have helped to make me a somewhat functioning member of society. But I have always wondered what kind of person I would be if I didn’t take that easy answer to the question of my suffering. Because the thing about SSRIs is, contrary to popular belief by way of pharmaceutical marketing teams, they don’t actually do anything to make you happy.”

The main function of antidepressants, Albright said, is numbing the mind to the stimuli or thoughts that are causing the suffering. They can turn the feeling of being overwhelmed by a task to a laissez-faire approach to the task itself, he added. They turn caring too much into a lack of caring about anything at all.

“But this notion that Pharma companies have created a pill that can make you instantly happy or stimulated or relaxed is what our pill popping culture is based on. It is all smoke and mirrors. It’s all about the bottom line. And, if this play has reminded me of anything it is that there are no easy answers to anything,” he said.

“Mental health is not your fault, but it is your responsibility. People have turned their lives around because of what these drugs do for them. I am not saying that there is a better way, only that there is nothing in life that a pill alone can solve. We owe it to ourselves to look deep inside ourselves and get to the root of our problem--it is painful but it is that pain and the joy that can spring from it that makes life worth living.”

Director Brett Moellenberg said he never realized until he tackled this play how new a lot of the drugs used to treat various mental challenges are relative to other medications.

“I was also surprised that many don’t believe they even work,” he said.

What does work, he said, is the intimacy of The Spot’s setup for “The Effect.”

“All of the seats are on the same level and inches away from the stage. Though there is no direct audience involvement, the audience is inherently involved in the action by how close they are to the action,” he said. “People tell us all the time how much they appreciate the quality of acting in our shows and, in this arrangement, the work is so real.” 

IF YOU GO

“The Effect” starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10, and Wednesday-Friday, April 16-18. It starts at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and 19. And it starts at 4 p.m. Sunday April 13 and 20.

Tickets are available at https://www.spotsunvalley.com/.