
Machinal
3.9 (9) · Contemporary
“Your skin oughtn't to curl - ought it - when he just comes near you- ought it? That's wrong, ain't it? You don't get over that, do you - ever, do you or do you?”
Overview
The city. A woman is restless. A woman is suffocating. A woman is silenced.
The woman revolts.
Natalie Abrahami directs a visceral production of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist masterpiece.
Critic reviews
Captivating, resonant and fittingly intense production of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionistic play
Gaspingly intense revival of Sophie Treadwell‘s expressionist masterpiece about a woman who snaps one day
Machinal remains here more a play to admire and wonder at than a revelatory insight into a woman's desperate soul. It is chilly as well as dazzling
Emily Berrington, best known from Channel Four’s Humans, brings a wounded seriousness to the central role of Helen, trapped by convention yet relentlessly wondering whether she can speak up for herself
Feels like it could have been written last week
An unforgettable portrait of a particular woman and of America itself as a hellishly dehumanised assembly line
Unsubtle but fascinating study of 20th-century women's plight