Behind the Sheet, Charly Evon Simpson
Behind the Sheet, Charly Evon Simpson
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Behind the Sheet

Author: Charly Evon Simpson

Narrator: Monica McSwain, Matthew Floyd Miller, Danielle Truitt, Devon Sorvari, Dominique Morisseau, Inger Tudor, Jasmine St. Clair, Josh Stamberg, Karen Malina White, Larry Powell

Unabridged: 2 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/15/2020


Synopsis

An important medical breakthrough has a shameful history. In 1840's 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. Recording Engineer and Editor: Neil Wogensen.

Reviews

A play presentation based on actual historical happenings. Doctors who used their own slaves (and those of others) to do medical experimentation in the efforts to find solutions to gynecological/obstetrical issues related to fistulas that may occur at birth or other times. The author shines a bright......more

2024 review: I first read Behind the Sheet almost two years ago, and I decided to revisit it for two main reasons. The first reason is that it was the first ever audioplay I had listened to. When I listened to it, I was still just getting the hang of listening to plays, or anything with an ensemble c......more

Goodreads review by Arlene

This is an incredibly powerful play that vividly brings home the brutality of slavery and the inhumanity of J. Marion Sims' experimental surgeries, however 'wellmeaning' and however good his achievements. It also highlights how Black women's pain continues to not be taken seriously. Thought provokin......more

Goodreads review by Sara

I don't know when or if I'll be able to see a production of this play, but I am glad I took the time to read it. It's difficult to be able to fully imagine the experience of enslaved women on a plantation in the Alabama heat. It's difficult to read about enslaved Black women being bought and sold, b......more