When Bess Wohl’s play Liberation premiered off-Broadway last winter it was revelatory. Despite some structural weaknesses that remain, it’s a beautiful work featuring an ensemble of actors at the top of their game. It’s no wonder the production transferred to Broadway totally intact.
Wohl is a wonderfully intuitive writer who listens to her characters. Her play is aptly titled, both literally — set at the start of the women’s liberation movement in the 1970’s — and dramatically, as her characters are “liberated” to determine the direction of the story. The result is a thoroughly honest portrait of a group of women who sought to change the world and came up short.
As impressive as the cast was in that earlier production, the women — and a guy — are even better now. And each of them seems so fully invested in their roles, we forget they’re acting. That is the highest praise I could offer.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Right from the start, when Lizzie (Susannah Flood) walks solo onto the stage, introducing herself, she’s got the audience in the palm of her hand. It’s partially the writing, as she endears herself with welcoming comments, asking “Is everyone good? Comfortable?” And there’s a meta component as she gets into their heads, when she says “How long is this going to take, right? I know that’s all anyone really wants to know: the running time.” It’s a clever way to begin, but even better ia when Lizzie finally gets to the point, saying “This is a play about my mother. For my mother.” Flood pauses at the mention of “mother,” tearfully moved, and she bows her head as she composes herself. It’s a touching moment and felt so genuine that it prompted an audience member to blurt out words of comfort.
One by one, the rest of the cast enters. It is 1970, Lizzie explains that her mother had posted flyers inviting women to join in a “consciousness raising.” They meet in the basement of a rec center in Ohio, six in all, and they are an eclectic group. Susan (Adina Verson), who goes by “Susie Hurricane,” is a young lesbian living in her car with a pet bird. Celeste (Kristolyn Lloyd), a highly educated woman of color from New York City, is unhappily back in Ohio to care for her ailing mother. Margie (Betsy Aidem) is a 60ish housewife who’s spent her entire adult life raising three sons with a husband she’d like to stab. Young Dora (Audrey Corsa) is a secretary with little chance of moving up the career ladder at a wine and spirits business run by chauvinists, until she figures out how to use her feminine assets and beat them at their own game. And there’s Isidora (Irene Sofia Lucio), a fiery Sicilian radical who married for a green card and is desperate for some real action.
Shifting back and forth in time, Flood also plays her mother during the flashback scenes. But when the story shifts to the courtship of Lizzie’s mother and father (Charlie Thurston), another actress (Kayla Davion) takes on the mother’s role because, as Lizzie says, it’s otherwise creepy.
The action centers on the meetings, spanning some three years, as the women bond and occasionally bicker. We learn about their lives and unfulfilled ambitions. But much of the talk is focused on female empowerment, which leaves little room for males of their species; that later becomes a source of conflict. Remember that old mantra: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” For better and worse, it was the birth of a movement motivated by equal parts idealism and naivete, which Wohl exploits brilliantly with humor and pathos to spare.
Act 2 begins with the women disrobing. That apparently was a “thing” at consciousness raisings back then. It’s also an inspired touch as the women are emotionally naked, metaphorically baring their souls to one another. And that’s the true beauty of the play.
The nudity explains why the audience is forced to lock up their phones in a sealed pouch as they enter the theater. But along with your phone, you may have to check your logic at the door because the constant time shifts are not always clearly delineated and it results in some confusion, a complaint I had in the earlier run.
Throughout, Wohl has some of the characters reappearing in present day commenting on those early years, some as ghosts (which isn’t all that clear). The climactic scene features a heartbreaking confrontation between Lizzie and her late mother, in which Lizzie is finally able to understand why her mother seemed to give up the fight. It’s stunningly performed but some may find it a bit baffling since Betsy Aidem as Margie volunteers to play the mother, a move that obliterates the fourth wall and may be hard to swallow for some.
I wish director Whitney White had found a way to better clarify the time periods. Lighting or even a sound effect might have resolved the confusion. But that aside, she’s given Wohl and her bravura cast a terrific platform to speak some hard truths.
The play takes place at a time when women had far fewer rights than they have today. We couldn’t even get our own credit cards back then. And yet despite the many strides women have made in the last 55 years, true equality remains a dream, and even slipped backward in recent years. At a little more than two and half hours, Liberation may be too long and perhaps overstuffed, but it’s an important and necessary work that reminds us how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go.
Liberation opened October 28, 2025, at the James Earl Jones Theatre and runs through February 1, 2026. Tickets and information: liberationbway.com
