Machinal
Machinal Alternative Title: The Life Machine
Author: Sophie Treadwell
First Performance: 1928, New York
Published: 1929
Genre: Drama in 9 scenes
Setting: New York and a seaside hotel, 1920s
Cast: 17m, 10f, extras
The Young Woman, a stenographer, endures a miserable and oppressive life, both at home and at work. So when her unattractive and boring boss asks to marry her, she accepts. However, life with her Husband offers no joy: the honeymoon is a hideous experience, and she hates her baby when it is born. In a speakeasy, she meets the Young Man, an outlaw on the run. She falls in love with him, and her affair with him is ‘all she ever knew of Heaven’. When her Husband refuses to let her go, she murders him, is tried and sentenced to death. When told her head must be shaved,...
[The entire page is 297 words long]
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