Inspired by the infamous 1926 case of Ruth Snyder, a woman sent to the electric chair for murdering her husband, Machinal follows this woman’s rebellion against a world of crushing conformity—where passion, desperation and defiance collide in a shocking act of violence. Nearly a century after its debut, this play remains a strikingly relevant meditation on gender, power and the oppression of “the machine.”
Helmed by director Amy Marie Seidel (Here There Are Blueberries, The Great Gatsby), this reimagined production amplifies the mechanical rhythm and expressionism in Sophie Treadwell’s text through a dynamic underscoring of tap dance, practical foley and heightened movement vocabulary created by choreographer Madison Hilligoss.
