Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . .
In the 1970s, it was extremely difficult for a woman in America to experience any sense of empowerment without first getting some sort of economic or societal permission. It was common then not to issue credit cards or bank accounts to women. They certainly couldn’t buy a house on their own without major hurdles. Their salaries were not commensurate with men (still true today, though some strides have been made). Not being empowered in such ways had to have felt like a personal prison. I certainly know that my own mother, age forty-two in 1970, expressed to me her feelings of being devalued. Liberation, a world premiere play at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, attempts over the course of two-and-a-half hours to spotlight six women of assorted ages, ethnicities, and social backgrounds who are members of a consciousness raising women’s liberation group. Taking place somewhere in Ohio, the play covers a two-year period in which playwright Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, Grand Horizons) allows us to get to know each of the women as individuals as well as how they function together. What she achieves is something very special.
The show is cleverly narrated by Lizzie (Suzannah Flood), the daughter of the woman who founded the group, directly addressing us as it starts. In the present, fifty plus years later, Lizzie wants to figure out how her recently deceased mother went from a woman who was once at the forefront of progress to taking a backseat as a doting wife and mother. This allows the character to step in and out of the action while, at the same time, portraying her own mother. Flood, so good on the same stage earlier this season in Meghan Kennedy’s The Counter, is masterful here. But then the entire company have been cast with expert precision. There’s Margie (Betsy Aidem), older than the others and depressed due to a house empty of her now two grown children, save for her emotionally distant and uncaring husband. Celeste (Kristolyn Lloyd), a highly educated Black woman struggling with her sexuality. Susan (Adina Verson), as one of the two youngest of the group, is most in touch with being liberated but has also taken to sleeping in her car. Then there are the two Doras, Isadora (Irene Sofia Lucio), an Italian immigrant in a Green Card marriage, and Dora (Audrey Corsa) who, like Susan is in her early twenties and the one whose consciousness is most in need of raising.
It may sound like a sitcom setup, but that’s only because bringing so many character descriptions down to one-line slugs is reductive. Wohl takes her time letting us in bit by bit and she builds the play beautifully. It is set in two acts, unlike so many shows that don’t want to pause either for fear of breaking the tension or fear of losing people at intermission. Here it feels like it is to give the play some breathing room and it works. It also gives the audience time to settle in for an unsettling scene at the top of the second act. I should amend that to “unsettling for some,” as it will only be perceived that way by those who are easily shocked.
It doesn’t give things away to say that it’s a nude scene, something most audience members will figure out when, upon entering the theatre, their phone is locked away in a pouch. For those uninitiated (it’s done at certain concerts and it was last done on Broadway with Free Style Love Supreme), once your phone is inaccessible, it’s handed back, then sprung free upon exiting. The same thing was done at Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out three years ago, another play with full frontal nudity performed in bright light. Commendations all around to the six actresses involved who bravely make the case for the scene by playing it full out and gloriously so. Done as part of the women’s meeting in order for them to really look at themselves and take pride in their bodies, it feels organic to the play. I can’t imagine anyone thinking it gratuitous.
This is mainly due to the exceptional direction by Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), who keeps things grounded even when the comedy threatens to tear away from the reality of the situation. Casting the show with a keen eye right down to its two smallest parts, Charlie Thurston (the sole male character in the play) gives a real and down to earth performance. And Kayla Davion stands out in the second of her two scenes, courtesy of a curve that gets thrown Lizzie as narrator. I should also add that though it can be a hoary device, the use of narration works beautifully here.
David Zinn’s practical set of a high school gymnasium looks properly exercised in. The dead-on costumes by Qween Jean are perfection and the lighting by Cha See is subtle and evocative. Shout out as well to the hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis, who received a Special Tony Award for her work on Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.
In the script that was sent to me for reviewing purposes, Liberation is subtitled “A Memory Play About Things I Don’t Remember.” That’s a bit disingenuous, but it does suggest that Wohl is being somewhat coy about how much of her own relationship with her real-life mother is on display here. Hardly matters. The play’s the thing and this is a memorable production that deserves a longer stay than its limited Roundabout run. Liberate yourself and see Liberation before it closes on March 30th.
Liberation is at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W 46th Street, NYC. For ticket information, please visit: https://www.roundabouttheatre.org
Photos by Joan Marcus.
Headline Photo: L to R: Adina Verson, Irene Sofia Lucio, Audrey Corsa, Susannah Flood, Betsy Aidem, Kristolyn Lloyd.
