Berkeley Repertory Theatre has brought the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Liberation to the Roda Theatre, with actor Katie Lowes starring as Lizzie through Nov. 29. The production imagines a 1970s women’s consciousness-raising group in Ohio, and it arrives in the East Bay fresh off a decorated run on the national stage.
As reported by KTVU, Lowes joined The Nine to discuss her role in the production. Berkeley Rep’s own staging materials describe the play’s setup directly: “It’s 1970s Ohio, and Lizzie has gathered a group of women in a rec center basement to change their lives and maybe the world,” according to Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The story is framed through a daughter looking back at her mother’s history, as the women search to “find answers to the feminist revolution’s unanswered questions,” per the same account.
Lowes takes on the role of Lizzie in Berkeley Rep’s staging, according to a casting document from the theater. Playwright Bess Wohl wrote Liberation, and it was directed by Whitney White, a two-time Tony Award nominee, the theater’s show page notes. The run is a co-production with Geffen Playhouse, Studio Theatre, and American Repertory Theater, per Berkeley Rep.
A Tony and Pulitzer Winner Comes to the Roda Theatre
Liberation’s pedigree is part of what makes this run notable: the play took home both the 2026 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Berkeley Rep’s press materials state. The win also carried historical weight beyond the Bay Area stage. It marked the fourth time a female playwright has won the Tony Award for Best Play, according to Playbill.
Notably, Playbill’s account of the play identifies Susannah Flood as the actor playing Lizzie, a different name than the one attached to Berkeley Rep’s local production, where Lowes takes on the role. The dossier does not clarify which specific production or cast context that Playbill reference describes, so readers should treat the two castings as belonging to separate stagings of the same script.
Scheduling Details and a Postshow Conversation
Berkeley Rep’s production runs at the Roda Theatre from Oct. 23 through Nov. 29, 2026, with opening night having been held on Oct. 28, according to the theater’s announcement. Audience members looking to dig deeper into the show’s themes have one more chance to do so: the theater has scheduled a postshow conversation on Nov. 18 featuring District 7 Berkeley City Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra and University of San Francisco politics professor Elisabeth Jay Friedman, centered on consciousness-raising and women’s liberation, per Berkeley Rep.
Runtime estimates for the show vary slightly depending on the source. Berkeley Rep lists the show at two hours and 20 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission, while a review from Theater Dogs puts the runtime at two hours and 30 minutes, also including intermission.
