A classic example of early American experimentation in the theatre, Treadwell’s 1928 Expressionist work was loosely based on a New York tabloid murder case which sent one of the first women in the U.S. to the electric chair.
The reviews are in.
“Knox’s moody, brutish and stylishly artificial production of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 play takes us back to a time when hard-edged depictions of a mechanized society were a political statement rather than a setting for a music video. The production is exceptional on two counts: visually, and because it exposes a female voice to audiences who might think that the only playwrights to come out of the 1920s and 1930s were Elmer Rice and Eugene O’Neill.”
Jayne M. Blanchard, Saint Paul Pioneer Press
“MACHINAL is Frank’s most ambitious undertaking yet. Moving briskly through nine scenes, it transports the Young Woman through the roles foisted on her: office worker, daughter, bride, mother, murderer. MACHINAL as a whole strikes a similarly complex balance: The expressionist theatrics refrain from going overboard and becoming comical (not to say there aren’t some genuine moments of humor), and it conveys its messages not by preaching, but by pulling the audience into its drab, relentlessly prescribed world-one that’s simply an intensified version of the real thing.”
Julie Caniglia, City Pages
