The Play YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT Forced Sterilization to a Dismissed Population in NC 1960s

YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT is play by Marilynn Barner Anslmi that enlightened me on the inhumane, legalized forced sterilization of people deemed mentally deficient or undesirables receiving financial support from the govt. in NC in 1960s.  This barbaric selective sorting of a population known as eugenics was what Nazis carried out in WWII to create a superior race.  The coerced "neutering" of blacks, mentally disabled & poor actually began in 1933 and only delegalized in 1988. This deplorable systematic regime was at an apex in the 1960s under the Human Betterment League in NC.  Massive tubal ligations were performed under the pretense of limiting suffering for the mentally impaired, physically disabled and as a means to reduce the cycle of poverty from those receiving social welfare benefits.  The vast majority of surgeries were on black women.  YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT is a portrayal of this shameful epoch in US history that is largely unrecorded.  This smart and painful play takes place in a Eugenics Office run by a white woman Mary (Erin Gilbreth).  Mary is convinced of her superior status & delusional believing this work is divine intervention.  She's startled when assigned an educated black woman Temperence (a remarkable Okema Moore) as her assistant.  Mary orders "Tammy" around like a servant, demeans her & the "Negra" race.  Temperence tolerance for what the Eugenics Office is conducting is tested until she reaches her boiling point.  The initial shock & disgust of these forced sterilization wears off and replaced by unmitigated horror & pain.  The cruel manipulation of a mother to have her mentally challenged daughter sterilized is heart wrenching.  When the mother refuses Mary threatens to clarify her unfit and have her other children taken away.  A King Solomon choice that is excruciating & appalling to bear.  A young black women who doesn't fit the criteria for tubal ligation is turned away though she pleads to have the surgery because she can't manage with another child.   A poverty stricken white racist is forced into having his daughter sterilized & her newborn child taken from her at birth if he wants to continue on the dole.  This intelligent and emotionally draining play sheds light on a dark treatment of people that's mostly hidden from history under sheets.  The acting is very affecting particularly from the mother (Adiagha Faizah) & her daughter (Atiya Taylor).  The plot twist connecting Mary & Temperance isn't necessary.  The names of famous people called out who may not have been born was a misfire.  The play is compelling in its direct depiction of the inhumane eugenics program sanctioned by legislation.