Adina Verson, Irene Sofia Lucio, Audrey Corsa, Susannah Flood, Betsy Aidem, and Kristolyn Lloyd Photo by Joan Marcus

Beautifully acted by a tight-knit ensemble of seven women (plus one male ally), Liberation moves back and forth between 1970 and the near present, just ahead of the most recent round of backlash assaults on women's rights in the United States.

But while Liberation is indeed structured like a memory play, it is more of an attempt at layering a semblance of logical details atop an array of information that our guide, Lizzie (Susannah Flood), a journalist, has culled through interviews she has conducted with some of her mother's friends from back in the day. What we see before us is Lizzie's conjectured reenactment of a time before she was born, when her mom, seemingly out of nowhere, decided to organize a consciousness-raising group for women to get together to talk. About whatever is on their minds. And to listen and give support.

And much of the play is just that, the interactions among a group of extraordinary "ordinary" women, one such group among the many that served as the foot soldiers of second wave feminism. It all takes place in a well-worn basketball court in the basement of a rec center somewhere in Ohio, where the women, seated on folding chairs, hang out, smoke (in case these things bother you, note that the perfumed odor often wafts through the theater), talk about their lives, and bolster each other.

As it turns out, this is an altogether clever conceptualization, one that allows for the inclusion of historically accurate background as needed for the sake of less well-informed audience members, while fully acknowledging that, for Boomers at least, this look-back covers familiar territory.

Yet by eschewing the headline-grabbing big names of the time, such as Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Bella Abzug, in favor of the down-to-earth characters being portrayed here, Liberation manages to sidestep the kind of polemical approach to its story that has marred other more in-your-face theatrical retellings of those breakthrough years that saw the passage of significant pieces of legislation like the Title IX anti-sex discrimination law and the Equal Credit Act, as well as the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v Wade.

Because Liberation is presented as the product of Lizzie's imagination (she serves as both narrator and in the role of her mother), there are sometimes moments of fanciful invention, such as when she asks another actress (Kayla Davion, who plays an outsider to the group) to stand in for her mom in what otherwise would be an awkward scene between her and the man who would become her father (Charlie Thurston).

But such flights of fancy are few, and the whole is grounded in realism, even including a scene in which the women sit around in the nude and talk about the perceptions they have about their bodies. It's quite compelling and not in the least prurient, though do note you will be placing your cell phones in Yondr pouches upon entry to forestall the taking of photos.

Everything comes together, thanks to compelling, naturalistic performances by the team of women who so believably embody their characters, with special kudos to Susannah Flood and the always marvelous Betsy Aidem as Margie, the oldest member of the group, who feels trapped in a "traditional marriage" in which her role as housewife is fixed and indisputable.

Overall, the engaging script, Whitney White's spot-on direction, David Zinn's set design, Qween Jean's period costumes, and the exquisite cast (in addition to those mentioned above, the women are portrayed by Audrey Corsa, Kristolyn Lloyd, Irene Sofia Lucio, and Adina Verson), make for a near-perfect production, a terrific rendering of this significant chapter in the ongoing fight for women's rights.