Machinal

[pacificnorthwest]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:04pm

Anyone have the scoop on "Machinal" and whether it looks promising or not?

Updated On: 12/12/13 at 02:04 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:35pm

I did this play in college and it's a pretty neat one. It's very expressionistic and is a director's dream. I imagine that it will be a great production.

[pacificnorthwest]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:50pm

Thank you! I may see it on its first night.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 8:07pm

A friend did a production at UCLA and it remains one of my favorite plays. It's really quite amazing and I taught it for years. Even a BAD production would be worth your time; the script is that good.

Trivia note: most people pronounce the play, Ma-kin-AL, which sounds right to my ear, but the author called it Mash-INE-le, to emphasize the theme that the modern world turns people into cogs in a giant machine.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 11:21pm

In RTC's YouTube video about the production, they seem to be calling it ma-sheen-ALL, which would be a halfway compromise, no? I never know how to go with it.

Like the Baritone, I too did this play in college. It is a weird, uncompromising, unsparing and daring text. I really like what Cumpsty says in that video (I'll link to it in case anyone's curious): there are no heroes or villains in the text. Everyone seems to be doing their best; it's a woman trapped in a system that grinds her down and strips her raw.

I like that Todd Haynes said this one was a bit different for RTC; it is! And that's great! I hope they keep going in this direction; dusting off underperformed classics but casting a wider net to more avant garde and riskier text. And I hope Rebecca Hall gives the performance as the Young Woman that I think she's capable of. This could be a real stunner, if all goes right.

Roundabout: Machinal - About the Show

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/13/13 at 6:58am

jnb, apparently it's an actual, if archaic, word. Webster has it pronounced two ways:

ma-SHEEN-al, or ma-keen-AL

Either way it means "of or relating to machines".

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/machinal

Since I taught the play more than a few times, I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know it was anything but a word invented by Sophie Treadwell, the author.

Above, I should have mentioned that the brilliant L.A. production I saw in 1991 was directed by Tracy Ward, a well-known, San Francisco-based director.

[wexy]

Posted: 12/13/13 at 10:14am

Its a good play.Blessed Unrest did it a couple of years off broadway on W 52nd and they did a good job.