Writer: Sophie Treadwell
Director: Richard Jones
There are so many wonderful things happening in this production. The stagecraft is brilliant, the lighting design (by Adam Silverman) is off-the-charts good, and Rosie Sheehy gives a towering central performance that will be talked about for decades. It is a supremely important play that is seldom produced, by Sophie Treadwell, a pioneering feminist and one of the first women playwrights in the USA. It is a production that should be seen. It is not, by any standards, an easy watch.
From the outset, director Richard Jones contrives to make the audience uncomfortable – pitch dark blackout to brightly lit stage in a snap fade, fidgety group work from the company, Rosie Sheehy demonstrating profound discomfort with her world and her fellow citizens that will only get more acute as the play goes on. When this production uses stroboscopic lighting, it really uses it – there is a discomforting jerky image that persistence of vision can’t smooth out, it is unsettling.
There may be questions as to why anyone would subject themselves to this sort of treatment, for two solid interval-less hours when a stiff drink at half-time would be very welcome. The reason to do that is that the show is brilliant. All the effects, alienating and uncomfortable, are immaculately provided by a production company and a cast at the top of their game. The seamless integration of design and performance is breath-taking and when the supporting actors carry boxes across a crowded stage and when they hang Venetian blinds over featureless bits of wall, they add to the sense of dislocation and allow Rosie Sheehy to grow her characterisation out of the weird and into the seriously disturbing.
The stage pictures created are always intriguing and sometimes beautiful and there is a powerfully gorgeous passage of singing from Daniel Bowerbank that makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end. The company’s movement is balletic, choreographed by Sarah Fahie. The show is not at all short of fun, beauty and joy. It does, however, swing back constantly to effects that unsettle and disturb. Some shows this well executed invite a second watch, to register moments that flew by the first time. Going to see Machinal a second time would require a high level of commitment. Going to see it once, though, that is a glorious way to witness theatre working its magic.
Runs until 1 June 2024
