I watched Sophie Treadwell’s new play Machinal, and it was an astounding portrayal of a true crime story that captured a nation.
Sophie Treadwell’s play set in the 1920s is based on the true crime story of Ruth Snyder, who killed her husband and was later executed.
The play tells the story of Helen Jones, a young woman in her 20s grappling to find peace and connection in a world that is constantly moving, where the people in it operate like machinery.
It shows the events from her early 20s, when she first married her husband obsessed with her ‘pretty little hands’, up until her death at the age of 29.
Helen, played by Rosie Sheehy, begins the play wearing a floral dress as she is pressed up against the bodies of men in suits on their way to work, which sets the tone of the play, a woman constantly pressing up against the wills of others.
The play constantly feels that it’s moving at mechanical pace as actors go through the motions of everyday life, whilst Helen gives fumbling monologues to try to find meaning in her life.
Sheehy gives a truly gripping performance as Helen Jones, showing a gripping, powerful and sometimes haunting display of emotions as she goes from living with her overbearing mother to reluctantly marrying her husband and giving birth to her only child.
It’s hard not to feel pity for the young woman as she stands on stage with bleary eyes whilst her newly-wed husband paws over her during their honeymoon.
The set consists of padded walls in a bright yellow, which really elevates a sense of a bright and harsh world that exacerbates our protagonist's struggles with her mental health.
Although the production deals with very difficult topics like reluctant marriage, unwanted sex, childbirth and murder, Treadwell’s play chooses to show the moments up until they happen as opposed to the acts themselves, yet this doesn’t prevent us as the audience from feeling their impact.
The play ends with Helen, a shell of a woman, as she makes the final walk to her execution flanked by a mechanically moving line of people in grim anticipation.
The play ends with a line of people mechanically working to ensure the demise of the protagonist as they pass torches along the line, before ending with the final person who delivers the fatal action when the lever activating the lethal chair is pulled.
The play was profoundly impactful, gripping and haunting and explored how life treats us like machinery, expected to go through the motions, and one woman’s constant struggles to break free from them.
Sensory information
The play uses flashing lights and strobe lighting throughout, with some loud noises during the performance.
At one point during the middle of the play the stage is in blackout for 3 minutes, with the period of darkness lasting 12-13 minutes in total.
The Old Vic will be running a relaxed performance on Saturday, May 18, an audio described performance on Friday, May 17, a captioned performance on Monday, May 20, and a BSL-interpreted performance on Friday, May 24. The relaxed performance will also be audio described, captioned and BSL-interpreted.
About the play
The running time of the play is an hour and 50 minutes with no interval.
Machinal is currently playing at The Old Vic Theatre until June 1, with tickets starting from £13.
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