Machinal

On January 12, 1928, Ruth Snyder is executed for murder in a New York prison. The tabloid press stokes public curiosity and publishes a gruesome photograph of the execution. Six months later, the American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell takes up the sensational case and develops it into her most successful play, *Machinal*, which premieres on Broadway that same year. Contrary to the press, Treadwell does not pass judgment on the offender, but rather on the patriarchal and capitalist society that has driven an “ordinary young woman” into a situation that is existentially bleak for her. In nine scenes, the audience follows different stages of her life: a monotonous office job, an unhappy marriage, unwanted motherhood, and a hopeless affair. Desperately, the woman—who remains nameless in the play—tries to find happiness by living up to societal expectations, until she is crushed by them. What makes Treadwell’s text so unique is its Expressionist-inspired form, which allows us to immerse ourselves in the protagonist’s inner life—abrupt, mechanical, shattered. …