Wrestling with Liberation: Black Women’s Voices Center Stage in Bess Wohl’s New play
Surrounded by the Broadway cast of Liberation and founding members of The Meteor,a feminist outlet centering women,girls,and nonbinary people,cultural critic Rebecca Carroll posed a critical question: “Why is it so hard for us to get it right,specifically with Black women and white women in this movement?”
The question arises from Liberation,Bess Wohl’s Outer Critics Circle Award-winning memory play,which explores her mother’s 1970 consciousness-raising group in Ohio. The play features seven women from diverse backgrounds grappling with identity, revolutionary ideals, freedom, family, and love.
Neither the play nor the ensuing conversation offers easy answers. Both Liberation and the dialog it sparks are about wrestling with complex tensions as they unfold.A key element of the production’s resonance lies in Wohl’s collaboration with Tony Award-winning director Whitney White and actresses Kristolyn Lloyd and Kayla Davion, ensuring Black women’s stories weren’t reduced to stereotypes or simply used for optics.
The past difficulties in this relationship are illuminated by Lloyd’s observations regarding limited opportunities and the constant expectation for Black women to adapt to fit various spaces. As Celeste, the highly educated caretaker revolutionary with a secret in Liberation, Lloyd powerfully portrays a Black woman navigating multiple worlds and seeking understanding in mixed company. Davion, who portrays Joanne—a housewife, mother, and quietly revolutionary force—admits to initial nervousness about participating in talkbacks, and even performing some nights, unsure how her character would be received, even within her own community. Yet, she also expresses a deep sense of honor.
“I truly believe this is the season for othre voices to be heard, specifically brown bodies,” Davion states. “To be in a show that is predominantly white and have this moment where they’re like, ‘Actually, we wanna hear from y’all’…it feels like a revolution of itself.”
The play highlights a crucial disparity: the tensions white women can choose to engage with or avoid are those Black women confront daily. As lloyd points out,“We’ve been challenged with making big,risky choices since we were in elementary school.”
Wohl, acknowledging her own positionality, didn’t shy away from her own uncertainties, embedding her questions into the fabric of the play itself.
(L to R on couch) Activist Gloria Steinem, Rebecca Carroll of The Meteor, Kristolyn Lloyd, who plays Celeste in Liberation, Kayla Davion, who plays Joanne in Liberation, bess Wohl, playwright, and Susannah Flood, who plays Lizzie in Liberation. Image: courtesy The Meteor.
