Love at 1st dose: a test-lab tale in SF Playhouse’s ‘The Effect’

Connie (Ayelet Firstenberg) and Tristan (Joe Estlack) display all the telltale biological signs of being in love. Hearts and thoughts race. Sensory perception seems heightened, sharper. Anxiety upsets stomachs. Libido skyrockets. And sleep? Forget about it.

But the two lead characters in “The Effect” have reason to believe they’re not really in love at all. All their symptoms match up quite well to still another cause: antidepressants, which they’re both taking as part of a clinical trial.