Enslaved Woman Wins Her Own Freedom

A Moment of Freedom sheds light on an incredibly important story around slavery in the colonies. It is 1781 and Bet, a house slave in Massachusetts, is about to change the world. After hearing an announcement of the young Massachusetts Constitution, which began with “All Men are created and born equal,” she goes to a lawyer and long-time friend of her enslaver to ask some questions about her status as an enslaved person. Ultimately, the lawyer helps Bet win her freedom, choose her own name, and change the direction of the United States forever.

Technically, this play was well executed. The set, costumes and makeup were all on point with the times; we truly felt like we were sitting in 1781. Bet, played by Catherine Bruhier, was excellent and Daniel Leslie, who played Mr. Noble in defending slavery, was one of our all-time favorite performances. And the play did a remarkable job of showing how history - at least one side of it - may have experienced this moment. However, the performance left us feeling bittersweet.

"A Moment of Freedom" was written by Marion Zola, a white woman who has worked on numerous other shows starting with "All In the Family," and was directed by Linda Alznauer, another white woman. Zola chose to write a play about a pivotal moment in Black history and, perhaps expectedly so, mostly focused on the white experience at the time. Bet’s lines and story were supporting what was going on with her enslaver, a highly commended Colonel who was ‘nothing but kind to his slaves,’ and even more prominently her lawyer. The play felt like a look at the moment that white lawyer decided to help a slave legally win her freedom, as opposed to looking at the moment a slave stood up to the oppression they were born into.

Bet sadly felt like a side character to her own story, despite being the catalyst of fantastic change that ultimately culminated in the Civil War, and who said one of the most powerful lines in the play: “I would rather live for exactly one minute free, than spend the rest of my life a slave.” The moment she chose her own, free name of Elizabeth Freeman should have been a world-changing experience, yet it felt like an addendum, an added note, a sidecar to the lawyer’s victory.

The end of the play was focused on Bet’s continued involvement with her enslaver's family after she won her freedom, where we learned extensive details about the man’s life, his future endeavors, his daughter's life and the birth of his grandchildren, while only briefly mentioning that Elizabeth Freeman ultimately bought her own house; she got remarried to a man who remained completely unnamed; and her daughter even got married to another mysterious unnamed man and had children of her own who we learned nothing about.

"A Moment of Freedom" is meant to be a powerful story, and it is an incredibly powerful story that absolutely changed the annals of history. The playwright could only speak through their own experience and that experience is not the Black experience. If you are interested in learning about and experiencing this piece of history, we encourage you to see it. We challenge you, however, to take what you are given in the play and reflect on the story from Bet’s perspective as an enslaved person, a Black woman, and a single mother who won her freedom. 

See also Ed Rampell's review: "Thank God Almighty, I’m Freeman at Last."

One Moment of Freedom is being presented through August 27 at Theatre Forty, 241 S. Moreno Drive, in the Mary Levin Cutler Theatre (same venue, new name), Beverly Hills, CA 90212. The venue is on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. Free parking is available in the garage. Moment is being performed: Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. - August 24; Fridays at 7:30 p.m. August 11; Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. August 26; Sundays at 2:00 p.m. - August 27; Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.- August 15; Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. - August 16. Ticket info: (310)364-3606; Theatre Forty.

Linnea Friberg-Price