The story is said to have been inspired by a court case involving a university and a Native Ameican tribe based in the Grand Canyon. At the core of “Informed Consent” is Jillian, a gung-ho genetic anthropologist enlivened into a believable character by Tina Benko, with quirky physical gestures and an impassioned manner of speaking as if every moment in her life and career counted desperately. She is obsessed with her work at a large Arizona university for personal reasons, but an even broader quest leads her into ethical problems that she doesn’t want to acknowledge.

On the personal side, Jillian is troubled because her mother died of early Alzheimer’s. Jillian fears that she might have inherited the gene and passed it along to her young daughter and is bent on discovering the truth.

Meanwhile, she has embarked upon a project of investigating genetic reasons why a local Indian tribe has such a high level of diabetes. Getting cooperation has been difficult, as the tribe considers its blood sacred and great effort must be made before the tribe representative, Arella, passionately portrayed by Delanna Studi, will go to bat for the study and convince tribal leaders to authorize blood sampling.

Jillian then dishonestly parlays the study into something unauthorized, going beyond the diabetes project and using the blood to trace the tribe’s origins, with results that contradict tribal beliefs. All hell breaks loose in the wake of the betrayal. But Jillian persists in her arrogant view that science is all that matters and anything goes in its pursuits.

In the upheaval that occurs, there is determination by the Indian tribe and the anthropologist, Ken, played earnestly by Jesse J. Perez, who gave Jillian her assignment, to have the blood returned and the results destroyed. Reference is made in the play to the immorality of the Nazi experiments and the notorious experiment tracing the results of inflicted syphilis on black prisoners without their consent. The moral issue is made clear.

The five-member cast includes Pun Bandhu as Graham, Jillian’s husband, and Myra Lucretia Taylor as the university’s no-nonsense Dean Hagan. There are moments when the audience is addressed directly, symbolizing everyone’s membership in the overall genetic pool. Wilson Chin’s set design and Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew’s projection design combine to suggest a genetic universe.