Machinal

This is a re-imagining of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionistic play about a woman trapped in a mechanical society that dictates how women should act and live. It turns out that we’re all a part of this machine we call a society and an economy. It also turns out that it's no way to live. It was 1928 when Machinal premiered on Broadway, only a year after the events that inspired it. Sophie Treadwell was a journalist covering what became a media circus — the trial and electrocution of Ruth Snyder. The industrial age and mechanization was reaching a dehumanizing zenith. It was a feeling not unfamiliar to those living a hundred years later. A long-time member of the company, this is Renee Hatton's directorial debut!

Reviews & Articles

• Talkin' Broadway →13 Aug 2026
• Pioneer Press →9 Aug 2026

  Fringe review: ‘Machinal’ adapts a 1920s play into an evocative, haunting mental breakdown