Informed Consent
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Cititour.com Review
Who will tell your story? While that’s the tagline of the megahit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” it could work just as well as for Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “Informed Consent,” a co-production of Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Sloan Foundation, now at the Duke on 42nd Street. Sadly, though, Laufer seems more concerned with this question than actually deciding which story she wants to tell – a problem not even the work of a fine cast, led by superb Tina Benko, can fully overcome.
The work is based loosely on a famous court case involving a Native American tribe who sued a major university claiming they didn’t give “informed consent” for a wide-ranging study of their culture. (The study was supposedly only meant to find a genetic link for diabetes.) The underlying issue is a fascinating one, especially given the fact that most members of the Indian tribe (in real life and in the play) don’t speak English as a first language, rendering their signed “consent forms” questionable.
However, it is not a question that bothers single-minded scientist Jillian (Benko) who has learned that she definitely has the gene for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which killed her mother at age 37, and is constantly preoccupied that her young daughter Natalie might have it as well. Whether she’s a dedicated yet misguided scientist or a nut job is never fully established.
Moreover, the “informed consent” issue seems diluted by the fact the only tribe member we meet is Arella (Deanna Studi), a perpetually angry young woman who is college-educated and worked for the U.N., and who helps convince her tribe to participate in the study. It makes sense that Arella would be the voice of her people and their ancient customs. Still, it sometimes feels as Arella believes in those customs (which include a fantastical story about their origins), which simply defies credulity.
Moreover, the tribe’s story almost comes off as a subplot, vying for equal weight with the domestic problems of Jillian and her family. Her concern for Natalie’s future welfare leads to constant, if not very believable, fights with her husband Graham (Pan Bandhu), a children book’s author who not only seems surprisingly unwilling to have their daughter tested, but appears almost shocked at his wife’s behavior, even though she not only made clear the kind of person she is (and her basic unwillingness to have children) from day one.
Jillian’s relationships with her university superiors are also troublesome. Her boss Ken (Jesse J. Perez), a sociological anthropologist who has clearly grown too close with the tribe, simply comes off as doltish and whiny, while university head Dean Hagan (Myra Lucretia Taylor) is a one-dimensional figure only concerned with what the lawsuit would cost. (Perez and Taylor also briefly play mothers of Natalie’s friends and are far more amusing and convincing in those roles).
In the end, “Informed Consent” asks far more questions than it can answer, leaving both food for thought and a slightly bad taste in one’s mouth.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://primarystages.org/shows/current-season/informed-consent
Open/Close Dates
Opening 8/4/2015
Closing 9/13/2015
Theatre Info
The Duke on 42nd Street
229 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
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