The Brooklyn Rail

Following the Broadway hit Grand Horizons and such off-Broadway successes as Small Mouth Sounds and Make Believe, any new work from Bess Wohl is greeted with much anticipation.

That’s certainly the case with her newest work, Liberation, which will play at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre through March 30 under the direction of Obie Award winner Whitney White. Set in two contrasting time periods—the 1970s and the 2020s—the work explores the goals, successes, and failures of the women’s liberation movement.

The Brooklyn Rail spoke to Wohl about her inspiration for the play, her reasons for collaborating with White, why she writes so well for actors, and the challenges of writing for off-Broadway.

Brian Scott Lipton (Rail): Tell me about Liberation.

Bess Wohl: It is a time-traveling play. This woman is approaching mid-life and questions her choices, as one often does. So, she goes back in time to her mother’s life in the 1970s, when her mother was very active in the women’s liberation movement. She ends up asking questions about both her mother’s choices and her own choices, as well as questioning how we got here as a society. Did the women’s liberation movement go too far or did it not go far enough? Like a lot of plays, it’s both personal and political.

Rail: Was there a specific inspiration for the play?

Wohl: When I was a kid, my mom worked at Ms. Magazine, so I grew up infused with second-wave feminism. As early as four years old, I marched in protests and parades. Those women were giants to me. So for a long time I’ve wanted to write about them, but also things like equal division in the home, or a day when there would be woman presidents—things that as a kid, I thought would be solved by the time I grew up. But I didn’t want to write anything explicitly autobiographical. I was also interested in grass-roots feminism, which hasn’t been talked about as much—things like local consciousness-raising groups. So I set the play in Ohio, and it really explores how feminism took hold beyond the big city. I was fascinated by the idea that, before the internet, how change happened and how you found like-minded people.

Rail: How long has this subject been on your mind?

Wohl: I’ve been trying to write about this time and subject matter for twenty years. In fact, I wrote a lot of other plays, with different titles and different plots. Finally, I talked to my mom and other women around the country in 2020 about these consciousness-raising groups. I would often talk to one woman and she would say to talk to this other woman, and it became an organic way of filling in gaps in our history. I wrote the first draft of Liberation in 2023, and we’ve been workshopping it ever since.

Rail: Your plays often examine some sort of group dynamic, from families to strangers. Why does this interest you so much?

Wohl: I am fascinated by what it means to be “equal” when groups of all kinds are inherently full of hierarchies and little power struggles. I love exploring the question of how each of us functions in a group.

Rail: How important was it for you to have a woman direct this play?

Wohl: I think I always approach choosing directors by thinking about who the best artist is for the job, rather than focusing on markers of identity. Moreover, I didn’t need another person like me on the creative side; it’s not important that we have the same cultural markers. In fact, I think having a range of perspectives—Black/white/straight/queer—is necessary. Beyond that, Whitney has done so many great shows; she is a true artist, a visionary, and a really profound person. And she is so great with actors—especially ensembles.

Rail: Your training at the Yale School of Drama was actually in acting. How do you think that affects your writing?

Wohl: It underpins everything I do. I work from gut feelings, which actors do as well. I often don’t know where a play is going while I write it. I don’t write from the top down. I also consider if a scene is playable and if the actors will have fun with it. I have a ton of respect for actors and what they bring to the process. That’s why, during workshops and rehearsals, I give a lot of credence to their feelings. As a writer, it’s my job to either get them on the path or readjust the path.

Rail: Do you ever write for specific actors?

Wohl: Rarely, and sometimes I think I should do that more, like I did back at Yale. The problem is I always have such a clear image of each character and no one on planet Earth matches that description in my head.

Rail: Do you think writing for off-Broadway allows you a different kind of freedom than if you were writing specifically for Broadway?

Wohl: I try to think about the story—and how to make it authentic—not the venue. I really don’t know why one play ends up where it does. Still, Liberation was particularly challenging. Writing eight characters is tricky in this economic climate; there is always lots of pressure from off-Broadway and regional theaters to write a two-hander or solo show, On the other hand, these women meet in a basement basketball court—which is where the entire play takes place—and on Broadway, audiences expect this high level of spectacle as part of their experience. Ultimately, though, the play tells you where it wants to be!