Dramatic Context
Realism vs. Expressionism
- Machinal exists to highlight the contrast between realist and expressionist drama
- There are 2 ways in which the play can be acted out
- Realism being the bid to depict and assimilate ‘real life’ and its matter’s
- The loose relationship between the protagonist and American murderess Ruth Snyder (1895 - 12 January 1928) places deeper psychological stance to each characters
- In the dramatical sense, honing in on this specific source of inspiration will inevitably motivate a more naturalistic and tragic/emotional response in any actress playing the role.
- Playing to the affections of a more sentimental audience
Expressionism
- On the other hand Treadwell was part of the collective that deviated from displays of subjective emotion in the sense that all emotion was Subject to the individual.
- The expressionistic concept lies on the premise of the consciousness not to inflict one person’s ‘truth’ on another.
- Treadwell uses subjective feelings regarding Snyder case to create an ‘objective play’
- Essentially Treadwell has taken a realistic’ truth’ and warped it into the context of this controversial morally ambiguous play
- the archetypal roles: Young Woman, Husband, Telephone Girl etc. Depict the characters in a more expressionistic light.
- Portraying the characters as merely functional accessories to the plot.
- If an actor/actress were to look at the wider structure of the piece more philosophically, then they may wish to reflect the disjointed, and distant nature of the language.
- The words can be manipulated in less literal sense on stage, to ignite a spark in the audiences mind just as they are metaphorically just sparks in the plays so called ‘machine of life
The play on stage
- This could provoke a Brechtian approach in which actors will reflect the lack of ‘absolute’ identities within the play.
- Thomson Gale Dramatic context: In the play, society as a machine creates a metaphoric theme. Throughout Machinal, Helen
struggles against society. Through Treadwell's use of sound and repeated dialogue, each phase of Helen's life is punctuated by repetition, noise, and an unseen, daunting force that pushes her along. Whether it is the opening scene in the office with the human voices creating an "office machine" or the noises of the world invading her hospital visit, Helen cannot escape society. Even though she does not want to submit, she is pushed forward, forced to carry out each of her roles in the machine—first as a secretary, then as a wife, then as a sexual partner, then as a mother—even though she hates each of her positions along the way and she continually feels pressured into submission. With this, Helen never finds a way to escape the clutches of the machine. In the end, when she tries to free herself by murdering her husband, she makes her first stand and she steps outside of her role as assigned by the machine. Almost immediately, she is devoured by society. The machine grinds her up and disposes of her once she refuses to fulfil her role. At the end of the play as Helen sits in the electric chair awaiting her death, the first reporter asks, "Suppose the machine shouldn't work!" and the second reporter responds, "It'll work! —It always works!" These statements in the final moments complete the play's metaphor. Anyone who steps outside the bounds of society will meet their end at the hands of its ever-grinding gears.
- This title is more indicative of Treadwell telling the audience what she plans to reveal than what actually happens in the episode.
- One critical response claims: ‘To further accentuate her emotion, Treadwell turns away from traditionally structured theatre, constructing a nine-episode play that mimics the nine-month gestation that women must endure when they are pregnant.’
- The abrupt changes in tone from scene to scene, are evident in scene titles e.g.: The shift from the scene entitled ‘Maternal’ to ‘Prohibited’
- An expressionistic approach would use the thematical inconsistencies in which one woman can appear so multifaceted: feminist and defiant, yet inferior and subservient, to their advantage in order to reflect ‘the moral crisis of the collective’
- Many Playwrights and directors have supplemented this expressionistic sense, through the visual and atmospheric creation of a Mechanical environment
- Past productions of the play have been described to look ‘stark’ ‘chilling’ ‘unrealistic’ and even ‘futuristic’
- Early productions of Machinal were played out against scenographer Robert Edmond Jones expressionist settings.
- Wikipedia states: Jones was an American scenic, lighting, and costume designer. He is credited with incorporating the new stagecraft into the American drama. His designs sought to integrate the scenic elements into the storytelling instead of having them stand separate and indifferent from the play’s action. His visual style, often referred to as simplified realism, combined bold vivid use of color and simple, yet dramatic, lighting.
- Expressionist theatre director and producer Arthur Hopkins’ rendition was described by critics using the following terms: “Subdued, monotonous, episodic, occasionally eccentric, ‘Machinal’ is fraught with a beauty unfamiliar to the stage.”