Review+of+Machinal

Lily Houston Machinal Review 27 March 2017 //Machinal // is the story of a woman. This woman has mental illness (I presume) from the beginning of the play, and submits to societal norms by marrying her boss. This is a fine marriage, but she doesn’t love him. The play continues over six years, showing different scenes of her life. Overall, the story is told sporadically so it can’t be said that it is told well. The message comes across that the woman is unhappy with her life and ultimately gains the “courage” to make her life happier. I think this subject matter is worthwhile because we get to look into the pressures of being a woman during this time period. It is difficult because being single pretty much means something is wrong with you. Due to this, the woman falls into this pressure and her mental illness goes unchecked. She is forced or gave into a life that she wasn’t ready to begin.

I have to be honest, this play felt like it wasn’t stage ready at some points. I feel like some of the characters were not portrayed as the playwright had wanted or that the director had not casted as it should have been; although with this being said, I realize that the chracters' appearances really did not matter. The woman was played by Eva Ramirez. At the beginning of the play I felt like she did an amazing job playing up the part of a naïve girl who wanted to get away from her mother, but as the play progressed she felt unreal. Her body language didn’t convey her unease and in the courtroom, even though her words said she hadn’t killed her husband, her body language didn’t. She seemed too young at the end, and sometimes she seemed childish and completely incapable of killing her husband even over lust. Next, the husband was so annoying, but it was a good annoying. He was played by John Buisman. I have seen John in other plays and he has a great quality about him. The husband was oblivious to his wife’s discontent, and straight up did not care that she had no feelings for him. He had a big ego and I feel like that clouded his judgement on his wife’s feelings.

The lover the woman met in the speakeasy was a good fit for the part. He was very attractive, and he spoke in a very eloquent way. The actor who played this role was Jordan Richards. The only issue I saw with him was that he stumbled over his lines a few times. This happened particularly at the end before the woman was electrocuted and he was reciting some sort of rhetoric. The lover was able to get the woman because he called her an angel. I think this says something about her relationship with her husband. She wants to feel pretty and pure, and her husband doesn’t make her feel that way. The moments that the woman and this lover shared in his apartment were very my favorite parts of the play just because I could feel the chemistry that the two shared. In some of these moments I saw the woman being really naïve, and I think the lover took advantage of this some. Now, the mother was played by Brandy Sexton. She did an okay job of guiding her daughter into making her own decisions, yet she still had an influence over her. At points she lacked emotion, but she played the part of a jealous mother very well. Even at the end, she lacked emotion when her daughter was about to be executed. Overall, these main actors did a good job of staying in the moment, but sometimes didn’t make the time changes apparent.

 Lastly, let me talk about the ensemble. At some points the ensemble was okay, but at other pints, it was extremely overwhelming, distracting, and awful! I have read this play and watched clips of it so I had a vision in my head of what the ensemble would be doing. At the beginning when they were at work, the ensemble fit extremely well, but as the play progressed, the ensemble got in the way. The singing sometimes overpowered the dialogue and the ensemble character’s stories distracted from what was really important for the audience to hear. I can see how having the ensemble was necessary in some parts, but in others, the dialogue and action happening with the main characters should have been enough to keep the audience engaged. To conclude this, I have to talk about the dancing. The dancing showed a lot of expression, but sometimes it confused me. I wish the movements had been more uniform and in one type of dance.

The physical production of the play was very much imaginative. Nothing was realistic expect a few props. Let’s begin with costumes. All the characters wore black. In my opinion, it was not necessary for the characters to not have costumes. I understand the minimalist perspective, but the lack of costumes made differentiating between characters difficult. I could see where it is necessary that the ensemble only wears black, but I think the main characters needed something to make their personalities more evident. As for set, the play employed the use of black boxes and the screen in the background. Using the acting blocks was okay because the audience could definitely imagine what the blocks were representing. The screen was cool sometimes because it showed the scenery and helped put us into the setting, but other times it was distracting and lacked reasoning. It reminded me of //Long Christmas Ride Home//, but I liked it better in that play than in //Machinal//. It was interesting to see all of these abstract things help the audience use their imagination to come up with the scenery in their own minds; however, without more of a set, the time changes were not palpable enough.

The props were the only thing realistically used. The lily in the pot with pebbles and the bottle were the only things that had distinction. Even the newspaper and magazine that the woman and man read were abstract as they did not have anything printed on them. Next is lighting. The lightning was not as fancy as in Sonia, but it did the job. Sometimes there were spotlights on specific characters, but other than that, I can’t think of anything specific that stuck out to me in the lighting aspect except for the flashlights used as a lighting tool. It surprises me, but I liked the use of the flashlights because it gave a unique spotlight effect. The flashlights also were used at the end when the woman was electrocuted which was unique and totally brought the point across that she was indeed executed by an electric chair. The lighting used was adequate, but didn’t wow me.

 Lastly, sound was a big thing used in this play although many might disagree. The sound made with the acting blocks intensified scenes, and of course the singing set moods for the scenes. When characters talked in the background and the main actors talked above them like in the final scene, this brought across a sense of urgency. The sound sped up or slowed down the acting, and I felt like it was used very well. The most important sound would have been the pebbles falling as it represented the woman killing her husband. Overall, the physical production was adequately good. I could picture that set in my mind, but only people with good imaginations could truly see what the play looked like so that could be difficult for people who are not normal theatregoers.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the play, but as I expected the guy watching with me was not impressed. He said it was too busy. Obviously, this influenced my opinions, but I did agree. The play was very busy with too much going on. It was hard to take in all of the action with so much happening, on stage. I enjoyed the general plot of the play, and I would definitely seek out more plays by Sophie Treadwell, but knowing what I know about most theatregoers (most like something fun that’s easy on the heart; and the others love musicals), I would not recommend this play to them. In comparison to //Long Christmas Ride Home// and //Sonia, Vanya, Masha and Spike//, I liked //Machinal// least in the physical production just because it engaged me least; however the play itself was the best to me as I read it. I look forward to seeing these actors in future productions because I really enjoyed their performances.