Behind the Sheet

An important medical breakthrough has a shameful history.

In 1840s Alabama, a slave-owning doctor performs medical experiments on involuntary subjects—enslaved women—in an effort to solve the problem of fistulas, a post-childbirth anomaly. As the experiments proceed, and he gets close to a solution, the women try to survive and even find dignity in the face of inhuman treatment.

Includes conversations with playwright Charly Evon Simpson and Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in August 2019. Behind the Sheet is part of L.A. Theatre Works' Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

Directed by Rosalind Ayres, Inger Tudor

Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg

Monica McSwain as Mary

Matthew Floyd Miller as Samuel and Edward

Dominique Morisseau as Dinah

Larry Powell as Lewis and Benjamin

Devon Sorvari as Josephine

Jasmine St. Clair as Betty

Josh Stamberg as George

Danielle Moné Truitt as Sally

Karen Malina White as Philomena

Narrated by Inger Tudor

Associate Artistic Director: Anna Lyse Erikson

Sound Designer and Mixing Engineer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood

Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin

Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner