FringeNYC 2013: Informed Consent
30 January, 1940. We are in the psychiatric institute at Wiesloch, Germany as we see four female patients on the eve of being sent to a transfer center where they will receive special care. And so our story begins...
Official production websiteShow details/ticketing at FringeNYC
Review by Stephen Cedars · August 12, 2013
Jeff Mandels's Informed Consent has a slew of fascinating elements that make it an ideal FringeNYC entry. Set in a German mental hospital for women in the early days of World War II, its atmosphere, setting and characters all resonate tension and the potential for visceral unease. Though the action spans only two rooms, the play explores the delusions of the unwell, the compromises made during wartime, the limits and costs of personal ambition, and the sad reality of life for women forgotten by society.
What hinders the play from truly digging into these many themes is that its characters are ultimately sacrificed to its plot, creating an uneven mix of style and atmosphere. It plays like social realism with an imprecise message, but has the ingredients for a much richer, visceral experience.
The play really works when the patients are allowed full reign to relish the well-observed moments that Mandels has scripted. Laura Kenny as Hannah is an instant stand-out, though the relationships are all richly rendered that all the actresses accomplish moments of nuanced intimacy by curtain. Without a doubt, Mandels has great sympathy for these women, both in terms of their disorders and their socially-imposed limitations.
Unfortunately, the plot heightens (or lowers, depending on your perspective) the play into a realm more fairy-tale than gritty reality. The villainy too quickly loses any ambiguity, the ostensible protagonist Nurse Gerhard fails to articulate the complexity of the ethical argument, and the tendency towards sentimentalism undercuts the otherwise rich and grounded explorations. It's not a bad plot and there are certainly some who might find it entirely engrossing - but it is a simple plot that too quickly swallows all of the atmosphere around it, and it's almost never as gripping as the moment-to-moment interactions that are well-directed and lovingly rendered.
Informed Consent is one of those unique FringeNYC entries, with wonderful contradictions between its dankness and humanity, but nevertheless too heavily skewed towards a plot far more conventional than the atmosphere calls for.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from Informed Consent
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