"Informed Consent" is a new work from playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer that's inspired by a real life court case involving a university in Arizona and a Native American tribe living in the Grand Canyon. It's being co-presented Off-Broadway by Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.
“Informed Consent” by its very title suggests a play about some legal matter, and that is indeed a partial focus. But there’s so much more in this ambitious, if overstuffed, new work by Deborah Zoe Laufer, it may leave your head spinning. At best it offers much food for thought. At worst it suffers from dramatic bloat.
Jillian is a genetic anthropologist with a wrenching back story. Her mother died young from early onset Alzheimers, and Jillian is destined to suffer the same fate. That’s likely why she’s a woman on an urgent mission. Teaching at a university in Arizona, she’s assigned to research a Native American tribe for a possible genetic mutation that might be causing an unusually high rate of diabetes.
Based on actual events, the tribe, isolated for generations in the Grand Canyon, adheres to very traditional beliefs. Among them, the sacredness of blood. And so when Jillian attempts to take samples of their blood for her research she runs up against a brick wall.
The play delves into the debate pitting science versus cultural identity, bio-ethics, and the legal limits governing investigative study. And with it all is the ticking time bomb of Jillian’s own genetically mutated brain. The narrative jumps around, detailing her personal saga and the larger issues connected to the genome. The science is quite fascinating and the conflicts exceedingly relevant; but as written and directed, the production over-reaches, with too many threads that seem to tie themselves in dramatic knots.
The non-traditional cast is saddled with multiple roles requiring herculean stretches – not always successful. Fortunately, there is Tina Benko, painting a most honest - if not entirely flattering - portrait of Jillian as a headstrong woman for whom science is the only religion that matters.
Lots to think about here, but in combining fact with fiction Ms. Laufer has bitten off more than she can chew.