When Susannah Flood first appears on stage in Liberation, it is in the guise of Lizzie, the author of the play we are about to watch. We immediately like her; she seems gently scatty as she addresses us, commiserating over how long the journey to get there may have taken us, the importance of getting candies unwrapped, and the most burning question: How long is this thing?
Then she takes a beat, and we subtly enter the frame of the play; she begins to talk about grief and loss, her voice clots, and so fast has the audience been beguiled that one softly sympathetic voice rings out from the front of the orchestra, as clear as a bell as Lizzie struggles to articulate her tangle of feelings: “We understand.”
That turns out to be a meaningful response. At least at my performance of Liberation—a Roundabout Theatre Company production now on Broadway after a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run earlier this year—the murmurs of recognition (as well as much laughter) emanating from the audience were a constant. This fizzingly vibrant ideas’ play seeks and elicits that level of interaction from the audience—particularly the women watching. A lot of truths are being told, and they are clearly being appreciated, heard, and inner-echoed.
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