Machinal

Machinal (1928), a play by Sophie Treadwell. [ Plymouth Theatre, 91 perf.] A stenographer, simply identified as Young Woman (Zita Johann), is a cog in the machinery at the Jones Company. In her desperate search to find “somebody” to love her, she takes as a Husband (George Stillwell) a vacuous man who brings her neither change nor real love. After her marriage she meets a Young Man (Hal K. Dawson) and believes she has finally found relief from the unthinking sameness around her. She asks her husband to release her, but he refuses, so she kills him. The Woman is tried, convicted, and executed. As she dies she cries out for “somebody.” The staccato dialogue and rapidly changing scenes were played out against Robert Edmond Jones's expressionistic settings. Brooks Atkinson wrote of the Arthur Hopkins production, “Subdued, monotonous, episodic, occasionally eccentric, ‘Machinal’ is fraught with a beauty unfamiliar to the stage.” The play was revived Off Broadway in 1960 and 1990, the second production being praised highly. The California‐born Sophie TREADWELL (1890–1970) had been an actress and protégé of Helena Modjeska before attempting to write plays. Half a dozen of her works reached Broadway, including Gringo (1922), Plumes in the Dust (1936), and Hope for a Harvest (1941), but Machinal was her only success. Biography: Sophie Treadwell: The Career of a 20th Century American Feminist, N. Wynn, 1982.

Sophie Treadwell
1928

Machinal was first produced in 1928. It premiered on Broadway with Clark Gable cast as the lover, Dick Roe. It was a critical success and ran for 91 performances. In 1931, the drama premiered in London to some mixed reviews, mostly because of the sexual and violent nature of the play. However, Machinal's greatest success came in Russia at Moscow's Kamerny Theatre, after which the play toured throughout the Russian provinces. Later, in 1954, the play was even produced for television.

The play's title means "automatic" or "mechanical" in French. Sophie Treadwell wrote the play based loosely on the murder trial of Ruth Snyder and her lover, Judd Gray, who together murdered Snyder's husband. Convicted of murdering her husband, Snyder later received the electric chair. Out of this event came the powerful, demanding drama, Machinal.

A woman's role during this era in history is confined and regimented to wife, mother, housekeeper, and sexual partner. Love is considered unnecessary, and thus many women are trapped in their dependant status, living a hellish life in a loveless marriage. The relationship between Helen Jones and her husband, George H. Jones, is no different. However, when a man intercedes and Helen is given a momentary glimpse of passion, her life is forever changed. She sees how society confines her, how her husband unconsciously dominates her every decision, and she feels that there is no escape. With a feeling of hopelessness, Helen commits an egregious crime, murdering her husband to free herself from the constraints of society and, ironically, to save her husband from the pain of a divorce. This heavy play is a powerful expressionistic drama about women's forced financial dependency upon men during the 1920s and their trapped existence in a male-dominated, oppressive wasteland.

Machinal
Written by	Sophie Treadwell
Date premiered	7 September 1928
Place premiered	Plymouth Theatre London, England
Original language	English
Genre	tragedy
Setting	An office; a flat; a hotel; a hospital; a speakeasy; a furnished room; a drawing room; a court room; a prison; in the dark
IBDB profile
IOBDB profile

Machinal is a play written by American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the real life case of convicted and executed murderess Ruth Snyder. The play stands out as one that calls for a vast array of specific sound effects. Its 1928 Broadway premiere, directed by Arthur Hopkins, is considered one of the highpoints of expressionist theatre on the American stage.

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 2 Awards and nominations 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links

Plot synopsis

The story involves Helen whose entire life has been dictated by the people and machines around her. She follows the rituals that society expects of a woman, however resistant she may feel about them, and subsequently marries her boss, whom she finds repulsive. After having a baby with him, followed by an affair with a younger man who fuels her lust for life, she is driven to murder her husband. She is found guilty of the crime and meets her end in one of the deadliest of machines, the electric chair.

Clark Gable originally played the role of "Man" (Richard Roe).

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1994 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival

References

• "Machinal". Novelguide. 5 October 2008. http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/dfs_0000_0022_0/dfs_0000_0022_0_00023.html. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 

Further reading

• Treadwell, Sophie (1993). Machinal. London: Royal National Theatre. ISBN 1854592114. 

External links

• Machinal at the Internet Broadway Database
• Machinal at the Internet off-Broadway Database

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v • d • e Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival Pericles (1991) · Hedda Gabler (1992) · An Inspector Calls (1993) · Machinal (1994) · As You Like It (1995) · Twelfth Night / Uncle Vanya (2003) · Mourning Becomes Electra (2004) · Hamlet (2005) · Hedda Gabler (2006) · The Crucible (2007) · Saint Joan (2008)

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