First Nighter: Lucy Prebble's "The Effect" Smartly Questions Scientific Experimentation

Lucy Prebble, who fiercely took on big business in the rousing Enron, is now grappling with science and scientific experimentation. She targets it in The Effect, an impressive, if not entirely convincing, production, directed fiercely by David Cromer. He's doing his handiwork at the Barrow Street Theatre, where he fared so well with Our Town and Tribes. The experiment conducted by colleagues and eventually more-than-colleagues Dr. Lorna James (Kati Brazda) and Dr. Toby Sealey (Steve Key) involve...