Liberation
by Bess Wohl

Broadway Off-Broadway
Liberation Book Cover
Liberation Cover

Highlights

120 mins Present Day Role(s) for Black Actor(s) Ensemble Cast Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle) Interior Set Period Costumes Comedy

Awards & Recognition

Drama Desk Award Lucille Lortel Award Outer Critics Circle Pulitzer Prize Tony Award

Winner! 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Drama Nominee: Five 2026 Tony Awards, including Best Play Winner! 2026 Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award Winner! 2025 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Nominee: Three 2025 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play Winner! 2025 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play Nominee: Five 2025 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play

Synopsis

It’s 1970. Somewhere in Ohio, six women meet on a basement basketball court to form a consciousness-raising group, determined to shake up their lives and change the world.

Fifty years later, one of their daughters tries to understand where things fell apart.

A provocative, wildly theatrical play that poses vital questions about friendship, legacy and the true meaning of liberation, investigating what we inherit, what we forget, and what we’re still fighting to understand.

Press Reviews

"Critic’s Pick! “An unadulterated pleasure. Powerfully moving and funny. When these women talk, we want to hear every word... Looks at community and individuality, determination and self-determination, in an elegiac and impassioned manner."

— The New York Times

"A superb enthralling emotional knockout... an extraordinary must-see… Mothers, take your friends and daughters."

— The Washington Post

"The year’s best play… an awesome night in the theater… the audience is immediately hooked… Wohl is so skillful in telling this free-floating story… [she] fills Liberation with all sorts of wonderful side trips… but through it all, the female characters are never presented as a bunch of victims."

— The Wrap

"★★★★★ “A show for the current moment."

— Time Out New York

"Fiery, funny and provocative."

— The Guardian

Characters

Character
Margie

Woman. 50s-60s. White.

Susan

Woman. Early 20s. White.

Celeste

Woman. Late 30s. Black.

Isidora

Woman. Late 30s to 40 at most. White.

Dora

Woman. Mid 20s. White.

Joanne

Woman. Early 30s. Black.

Bill

Man. Late 20s-early 30s. White.

Lizzie

Woman. Flexible age. White.

Videos

Liberation – Broadway Trailer

Publication

ISBN-13 9780822246077
ISBN-10 0822246074

Liberation is a comedy play written by Bess Wohl and published by Dramatists Play Service .

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Rating

4.7

7 ratings · 77 reviews

Review

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Professional Only
Fee: Minimum Fee: $120 per performance
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