The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar)

Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St NW Washington

Philadelphia's African Baptist Church, 1832: a mother and daughter guard the grave of their husband and father to deter resurrectionists from pillaging it for science. Today, on the same grounds: another mother and daughter work as counselors at what is now a summer camp. Timelines collide, reminding us to find joy in our present even as we exhume our nation's buried past.

Thru - Oct 12, 2025

Show Type: Drama

www.woollymammoth.net

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The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
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Washington Post - Recommended

"...A grave - the ultimate cooped-up location - may be a key setting for "The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents Into a Dollar)," but there's an inspired expansiveness to this time-traveling new drama. Nia Akilah Robinson's audacious play zings between modes and moods: intense, sorrowing drama. Casual comedic riffs. Glimmers of horror and ghost story."

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- Celia Wren

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar), written by Nia Akilah Robinson and directed by Mina Morita, tells a philosophical and profound story where memories cling to soil and roots, where what was buried begins to breathe again, and where the past has not vanished and has arrived in the present to begin a new chapter."

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- Aileen Johnson

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"...In an ambitious new play at Woolly Mammoth, the dead don't rest easy-and neither do the living. The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents Into a Dollar) is a sweeping drama that unfolds on one plot of land in Philadelphia over two parallel timelines: one in 1832, the other in the present. In the 19th century, Minnie Freeman (Yetunde Felix-Ukwu) keeps vigil over the grave of her husband, Moses, who has just died of cholera. Their 16-year-old daughter, Charity (Victoria Omoregie), keeps watch with Minnie, alternately comforting, cajoling, and questioning her. As they set out to protect his body from "resurrectionists" (grave robbers selling Black corpses to medical colleges for dissection), the act of resistance brings them closer than ever before and gives them purpose as they mourn."

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- Douglas Corzine

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...The year is 1832. A mother and daughter stand vigil at the gravesite of Moses Freeman, father and husband. We don't know the circumstances initially. We don't know how he died or why the need for them to protect his grave. We just know that they are nervous, unsure and alert to every movement in the cemetery. Eventually, it is revealed, in part by the presence of an unexpected midnight visitor with a shovel, that Moses is the intended victim of grave robbing for the purposes of science."

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- Anne Valentino

BroadwayWorld - Somewhat Recommended

"...Rising NYC playwright Nia Akilah Robinson's new offering, The Great Privation, arrives at Woolly Mammoth as its second destination, recently having its debut at Soho (NY) Theatre. What unfolds is engaging, challenging and heartfelt, but ultimately hard to pin down. Robinson's Harlem roots and experience are brought to light to illuminate the black experience in a generationally time-bending way. "A Raisin in the Sun" it is not."

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- Brian Bochicchio

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) at Woolly Mammoth Theatre