Part of a series: “…by Nancy.”
SIG: She says — it’s a punishment. I’m like this because I’m being punished. God doesn’t exist for people like me. I’m leaving the church. Those people are so angry and repressive.
NOAH. The Unitarians?
p. 60, Acting Edition, Dramatists Play Service (1999)
TPT Commentary: Amy Freed’s Freedomland skewers the folly of extremes in both intellectual liberalism and survivalist libertarianism. Searching for meaning, a family of generational privilege has abandoned the norms and mores of religion, morality, hierarchy, and sentimentality. Inevitably, these idealistic and impractical characters are complicit in their own annihilation. Freed’s extreme dialogue which invokes shock and laughter in Act One, evolves in Act Two into some beautiful commentaries on the human condition. At first, we may be impressed by and laugh with the characters intelligence, insight and iconoclasm. Then, we might be repulsed by their vulgarity and depravity. Ultimately and unfortunately, we pity or are even angered by how futile and impotent they have become.
Recommendation: Will It Play Here? Improbable.
I am looking forward to reading more by this playwright (my second Freed analysis), but am not recommending this work for production by my readers. First, we again have the trope of a family of Northeastern intellectual elites. Second, the play warrants a visual realism in its very specific and realistic sets (2 of them) which are filled with highly unusual and problematically practical props (see below). Third, vulgarity is frequent and some sexual references will be beyond acceptable to local standards. Finally, my audiences, whose lives are by necessity far more pragmatic, would see the indulgences of Freed’s characters as offensive, repulsive, and improbable before they would see an allegory of privilege gone misdirected and unfettered. In short, the “Underfingers” are far too removed from my audience’s life experience. Princess musicals (a genre of but not my audience’s sole lexicon) have beasts and fairy godmothers, but these characters have clearly defined moral arcs and are, at outset, presented as parables.
For a playwright who is female, I laud that this is a farce written from the perspective of a member of a generation and tells its story with no prerequisite to be particularly representative of a gender voice. It is plainly a voice. Perhaps that is my prejudice and privilege exposed. Women should write all sorts of plays, they need not all be about the female experience of repression. Most of the women in this play transcend or ignore that repression. Not all women have that opportunity.
Summary: Three lost adult children converge on their eccentric family’s Upstate New York home dragging two others and the audience deep into an impromptu and dysfunctional family reunion
Themes: Intellectual esotericism; privilege unfettered. If we abandon conventional standards, how do we know what we value and if we have succeeded? Is the world actually going to hell in a handbasket?
Cast: 4f, 3m
Culturally conscious casting opportunities (new to WIPH?): 4 characters compromise a biological family with American colonial heritage. A step-mother, a male writer, and a girlfriend have no restrictions or guidance on ethnicity. All characters are gender-specific.
Running Time: 2 HOURS, 15 MIN https://variety.com/1997/legit/reviews/freedomland-1200451296/
Royalties (professional): $105 per performance. https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=2862
Sets: 2
- “An eerie urban painting studio. There are forms of clowns, heads, faces, dummies, circus fragments.” p.5 This set is present for only three pages of dialogue.
- “The great room of a colonial dwelling… vintage post-and-beam construction…large fireplace…multi-paneled windows…trap door to the roof…part of the sky is always visible” (p.8), artifacts from religions around the world, bookshelves filled with “thousands of books.” This set is present for 57 pages of dialogue; the remainder of the play. An outdoor theatre actually had the audience “hiking to different stages.” https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2008/07/23/theatre-in-the-woods-stages-freedomland-
Costumes: All contemporary. Specialty items: Artist’s smock indicating regular use. Bondage mask, practical. Some characters wear towels briefly and slightly disrobe. No reviews have mentioned nudity.
Props: COUNTLESS: “forms of clowns, heads, faces, dummies, circus fragments,” painted canvases (with realistic hobo clown paintings?), many pieces of religious iconography, a ceramic “Babylonian god” statuette that is smashed at every performance, bloody venison haunches and tools for practical butchering of same momentarily onstage, “thousands of books,” part of an improvised pipe bomb, a practical rack repurposed from antique stocks
Provenance:
Playwright:
Representative: Charles McArthur Playwriting Award (D.C.), The New York Art’s Club Joseph Kesserling Award, LA Critic’s Circle Award (several), Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Several prestigious theatres have produced plays around the country (especially, in New York, DC, and California).
More complete and impressive: https://profiles.stanford.edu/amy-freed.
Play: 1998 Finalist for The Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Purchase:
$11 Acting Edition https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=2862
From $6.99, used https://www.amazon.com/Freedomland-Acting-Amy-Freed/dp/0822217198
Availability at I-Share libraries in Illinois:
ISU, Normal, IL (my copy, Thank you)
SIU, Carbondale
EIU, Charleston
UIUC, Champaign/Urbana
Reviews:
New York, 1998
http://www.curtainup.com/freedom2.html
https://variety.com/1997/legit/reviews/freedomland-1200451296/
DC, 1998
Drinking: Yes, especially a type of moonshine coined “whistel.”
Smoking: none.
Sex: Implied between a 27 year old man and a 50 plus year old married woman who pretends to be his mother (really), bondage mask worn, talk of bondage wear, talk of orgasms in the presence of multiple partners. A man is groped under a table as his voice modulates in pitch. Later, this same man is stretched on a “rack.” All of the former are instigated by the same character.
Language: “Fuck” in all its forms, and countless times, yet never about sex. “Shit” frequently as in feces, fool, and useless information
Nudity: None.
Violence: Male posturing, pushing and shoving. A character bombs a “Quaker meeting hall,” offstage. No deaths or injuries are implied.
Other possibly controversial subject matter: A “Babylonian” god statuette is smashed. A crucifix is present and discussed for its value as a purchase.
Rating: PG-13/R for language and sexual and violent themes. There is no nudity nor are overt sexual acts performed onstage.
Format inspired by the sadly suspended operations of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre then enhanced by TPT
Photo credit: compilation by author of
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willitplayhere 
