Liberation (play)

Last updated
Liberation
Written by Bess Wohl
Date premieredJanuary 31, 2025
Place premieredLaura Pels Theatre, Off-Broadway
Original languageEnglish
SettingOhio, 1970; present day

Liberation is a 2025 American memory play by Bess Wohl. Developed by the Roundabout Theatre Company, it explores second-wave feminism, memory, and the complexities of social change across generations. The play premiered Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre in February 2025, directed by Whitney White, and is scheduled to transfer to Broadway in October 2025 at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

Contents

Productions

Off-Broadway (Laura Pels Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company)

Liberation premiered Off-Broadway at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. Previews began on January 31, 2025, with an opening night on February 20. It ran until April 6, having extended a week from its originally closing date of March 30. [1] [2]

The production was directed by Whitney White and featured:

The creative team included David Zinn (scenic design), Qween Jean (costume design), Cha See (lighting), and Palmer Hefferan (sound). [4]

Broadway transfer

A Broadway production is scheduled at the James Earl Jones Theatre for a 14-week engagement. Previews start October 8, with an opening on October 28, 2025. The original Off-Broadway cast will reprise their roles. [5]

Plot

Set in Ohio in 1970, the play opens in a rec-centre basement where Lizzie convenes a consciousness-raising group of women. Fifty years later, Lizzie’s daughter looks back to try to understand her mother's radical past. [6] Structured as a memory play, the narrative shifts fluidly between past and present, with the narrator directly addressing the audience. [7]

Reception

The play received widespread acclaim from critics. Sara Holdren of Vulture praised it as “the best play I’ve seen this season”, lauding how it “balances the intensely personal and the broadly civic, the ethical and the theatrical, with extraordinary rigor and grace”. [7]

The Week remarked that the play “takes an old form and shakes it like a freshly laundered sheet in the breeze”, singling out the cast’s performances in a “growing wave of charisma, camaraderie, tenderness, and tension”. [8]

The Wrap declared that “2025 has already delivered its first great new play”, commending Wohl’s deft mixture of sobering, funny, provocative, and “totally engaging” elements, and noting her narrator is “even more direct and efficient … than the Stage Manager in ‘Our Town’”. [9]

Some reviewers offered more reserved praise. Rachel Graham of TheaterMania observed that while the play did create “multidimensional characters and deftly balances a personal story with the history of the women’s movement”, ultimately “the landing doesn’t quite stick”, though “there’s enough to keep the thoughtful Liberation in the air throughout its two-and-a-half hours”. [10]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResultRef.
2025 Drama Desk Awards Outstanding Play Nominated [11]
Outstanding Director of a Play Whitney White Nominated
Outstanding Wig and Hair Nikiya MathisNominated
Outstanding Ensemble Betsy Aidem, Audrey Corsa, Kayla Davion, Susannah Flood, Kristolyn Lloyd, Irene Sofia Lucio, Charlie Thurston, and Adina VersonWon
Outer Critics Circle Awards Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play Won [12]
Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play Betsy Aidem Nominated

References

  1. Evans, Greg (20 February 2025). "World Premiere of Bess Wohl's Liberation Opens Off-Broadway". Playbill. Playbill, Inc. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  2. Rabinowitz, Chloe. "LIBERATION Now Extended Through Early April at Roundabout Theatre Company". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  3. "Liberation – BroadwayWorld". BroadwayWorld. Wisdom Digital Media. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  4. "Bess Wohl's Liberation Extends Off-Broadway". Playbill. Playbill, Inc. 7 March 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  5. McPhee, Ryan (4 August 2025). "Bess Wohl's Liberation Keeps Original Off-Broadway Cast for Broadway Run". Broadway News. Broadway Briefing. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  6. "Liberation – The New Yorker". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. February 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  7. 1 2 Holdren, Sara (21 February 2025). "Liberation Review". Vulture. New York Magazine. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  8. "Theater Review: Liberation". The Week. 2025-03-05. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  9. Hofler, Robert (2025-02-21). "'Liberation' Off Broadway Review: Bess Wohl's New Play Is as Good as New York Theater Gets". TheWrap. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  10. "Review: Bess Wohl Interrogates the Women's Movement in Liberation Off-Broadway - TheaterMania.com". 2025-02-21. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  11. Olivia Clement (June 1, 2025). "Drama Desk Award Winners 2025: The Full List". Playbill.
  12. "Maybe Happy Ending Leads 2025 Outer Critics Circle Awards; See the Full List of Winners" . Retrieved 22 July 2025.