Sure, you always have a choice, because you're a strong, capable, rational person. But she isn't. Many people are like that.

In Episode Four, Helen lies in a maternity ward. As a nurse asks her questions about how she’s feeling, she refuses to speak, merely shaking her head when necessary. “Aren’t you glad it’s a girl?” the nurse asks. Helen shakes her head and the nurse chastises her. The nurse asks if Helen needs anything, and Helen points outside, where construction is noisily underway, but the nurse can do nothing to stop the raucous sounds. When George arrives, the nurse tells him Helen’s “getting stronger,” and he says, “Of course she is!” He then moves toward Helen, telling her she needs to “brace up” and that he understands everything she went through in childbirth because he was standing in the hall listening while she was in labor. “Pull yourself together!” he says. As he goes on, Helen starts choking and pointing at the door. “She’s got that gagging again—like she had the last time I was here,” George tells the nurse before leaving and promising to return the next day. The doctor then enters, insists that she try breastfeeding, and demands that she start eating solid food. When he leaves with the nurse, Helen speaks to herself at length, saying, in part, “Let me alone—let me alone—let me alone—I’ve submitted to enough—I won’t submit to any more…” When the lights go out, the sound of construction accompanies an electric piano until the stage goes bright again for Episode Five. Sophie Anita Treadwell (October 3, 1885 – February 20, 1970) was an American playwright and journalist of the first half of the 20th century. She is best known for her play Machinal which is often included in drama anthologies as an example of an expressionist or modernist play. Treadwell wrote dozens of plays, several novels, as well as serial stories and countless articles that appeared in newspapers. In addition to writing plays for the theatre, Treadwell also produced, directed and acted in some of her productions. The styles and subjects of Treadwell's writings are vast, but many present women's issues of her time, subjects of current media coverage, or aspects of Treadwell's Mexican heritage. [1] Sophie Treadwell on U.S. auto tour Heritage and childhood [ edit ] Sheehy, returning to the Ustinov after her fantastic run in David Mamet’s Oleanna a couple of years ago, delivers a magnificent performance of earth-shattering magnitude.Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal was first seen on Broadway in 1928, in London in 1930, and was later revived in the 1990s. A hotel bedroom with a window overlooking a dancing casino sets the stage for the revealing the young woman’s decision. She and George have married and are on their honeymoon. They have just arrived as a bellhop brings in their luggage. The most striking aspect of this scene is its similarity to the previous episode. Like her mother, her husband is distracted while she tries to talk to him. He pulls her onto his lap and tries to get a little fresh before asking if he’s already told her a dirty joke about the pullman porter and the tart. He keeps trying to turn the subject to what’s under her dress, asks if she’s afraid of him and complains when she tries to go into another room to undress. As she disappears into the bathroom, he begins speaking about his plans to enjoy life from this point forward and muses about graveling to Europe next year. Finally, she reappears from out of the bathroom wearing a straight white nightgown. As George crosses to her, he realizes she is crying. The young cries out that she wants her mother—she wants somebody. The husband reminds her that she has him and there is nothing to cry about. Abetted by designer Miriam Buether and team, director Natalie Abrahami crafts a gaspingly claustrophobic series of vignettes. Twitching to Arthur Pita’s discretely pummeling choreography, the cast are hemmed in by a low, sloped, mirrored ceiling, with retina-searing bars of lights marking the frequent scene changes. It is intensely atmospheric. A production of Machinal was presented by the Richard Burton Theatre Company at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff in February 2019. It might appear a cliché or perhaps easy to describe Machinal as ahead of its time, but the sheer pacing and relentless dialogue wouldn’t feel out of place if premièring now. Like all successful and hard-hitting revivals, they succeed in speaking to today’s world. The choice to revive this play is nothing short of a masterstroke.

On the Mainstage - Machinal". Muhlenberg College. Muhlenberg College Theatre and Dance . Retrieved 12 February 2019. In the final episode, moments before Helen is taken to the electric chair, Helen converses with the Priest. Mostly, she talks at the Priest as he reads her last rites. Helen divulges many of her feelings in the final episode of the play. She is extremely emotional about her forced submission into work, marriage, sex, and motherhood. The Priest is calm, collected and regimented. He gives Helen her last rites and then her head is shaved and she is led to her death in the electric chair. titled The Life Machine in the London premiere, [3] premiered on Broadway September 1928-November 1928 and was revived on Broadway January 2014-March 2014. [4] The story of Machinal is told over 9 scenes by 29 identifies characters. [5] Six distinct settings appear in the play: office, house, hotel, hospital, bar, courtroom, prison, [5] The main character in the play is the 'young woman,' played in the 2014 Broadway production by Rebecca Hall. [4] None of the characters are named, but identified by their station or occupation. The story is loosely based on the murder trial of Ruth Snyder. This play has also been revived off Broadway and on television and is, by far, Treadwell's best known work. [3] a one-act, [2] featuring six characters with an abstract setting and family, romantic, and social subject matter [5] A 3-act play set both in the upper-east side and an upper-west side of New York City, with a multiracial cast who portray a range of socioeconomically divided characters from a lawyer and politician—to a laborer and a criminal [5]A production of Machinal was presented at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA on September 27–30, 2018, directed by Lou Jacob, Baker Artist-in-Residence. [20] It was unfortunate that word was sent broadcast before the first performance of Machinal that its theme and characters grew out of the notorious Snyder-Gray murder case," wrote Perriton Maxwell, editor of Theatre Magazine. "The play bears no likeness to the sordid facts of that cheap tragedy … Machinal transcends the drab drama of the police court; it has a quality one finds it difficult to define, a beauty that cannot be conveyed in words, an aliveness and reality tinctured with poetic pathos which lift it to the realm of great art, greatly conceived and greatly presented." Calling Machinal "the most enthralling play of the year," Maxwell attributed the play's success to "three remarkable persons: Sophie Treadwell, Arthur Hopkins and Zita Johann." [6] Sophie Treadwell was a campaigning journalist in America between the wars. Among her assignments was the sensational murder involving Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, had murdered her husband and gone to the electric chair. Wynn, Nancy. “Sophie Treadwell: The Career of a Twentieth-Century American Feminist Playwright.” Diss. The City University of New York, 1982. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Web.

When Rebecca Hall first read the script, she felt like she “couldn’t breathe for a minute”. Hall played the lead for Turner, who considers that “it takes a great deal of humanity, craft and courage to play a character who isn’t allowed to act on her own behalf.” Fiona Shaw, who led the last major British revival, directed by Stephen Daldry at the National Theatre in 1993, describes the challenge differently: “To play a not particularly interesting, not particularly good person. The morality of the evening doesn’t lie in her hands.” In 2013, Machinal was included on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Greatest Plays of the Past 100 Years". [2] Kabatchnik, Amnon. "Machinal" Blood on the Stage, 1925-1950: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection, Scarecrow Press, 2010, ISBN 0810869632, p. 217 YOUNG WOMAN ( rushing on). I’ve always thought I’d find somebody—somebody young—and—and attractive—with wavy hair—wavy hair—I always think of children with curls—little curls all over their head—somebody young—and attractive—that I’d like—that I’d love—But I haven’t found anybody like that yet—I haven’t found anybody—I’ve hardly known anybody—you’d never let me go with anybody and—It might be one of the best pieces of theatre that has taken place in the West Country all year. A hot take? Perhaps. But its powerful retelling, sheer excellence in Jones’s direction, Shin’s decisive set design and an exceptional cast led by Sheehy’s heartbreaking performance is something to behold. If Oleanna and Romeo and Julie didn’t put her on the map, then Machinal will surely rubber stamp it—and some. By the end, the audience is left in a shivering state.