The Article below was published in Vol. 135, Issue 3 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on November 8, 2019
By Jennifer Morales ’22
Staff Writer
The 1920s is considered to be an exciting era with fashionable and entertaining parties. But what happened behind the scenes of all the fun times? What was it like to be a woman in the 1920s era? A woman whose freedom wasn’t really given to her? Well, the play Machinal by Sophie Treadwell addresses these questions.
Machinal is a 1928 expressionist play by the female playwright Treadwell, who wrote the play based on the trial of Ruth Snyder. The trial involves Snyder being accused of murdering her husband, which leads to her execution by electric chair.
The show involves a young woman, Helen Jones, and her life story through nine episodes. The nine episodes show Jones’s frustration of being constantly restricted and the inability to be free. It’s a concept of being stuck in a circle where she can only follow rules that are applied to women.
Dramaturge Isaac Winter ’20 describes it as being in a mechanical world where you cannot break out of what was considered a social construct.
As the dramaturge, Winter is responsible for working with the actors in the show to make sure the scenes are historically accurate. When asked what he is more excited for people to see in the play, Winter said: “It’s a tough question. I’m excited to see how people will react to how the story will unfold.”
The show will be staged November 7–9 and 14–16, at 7:30 p.m. in Hixon Hall. It’s free for all Lake Forest College students and staff, $3 for students from another school, and $7 for adults unaffiliated with the College. In the Hixon building, there will be a poster board filled with pictures, including information on the playwright and background on the murder case.
Jennifer Morales can be reached at moralesj@mx.lakeforest.edu
