Brava's Bravery in Machinal

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Never in my life have I seen the wheels and cogs of our government and financial infrastructures so exposed. While the parade of bank C.E.O.s and captains of industry sputter their ephemeral excuses to an enraged public I would just once like to see someone with the courage of their convictions. Which is why I was pleased to see that Brava was producing Sophie Treadwell's impressionistic Machinal. It is a brave, unflinching, and honest production when we need it most.

The play was first produced in 1928, and I couldn't help but feel the playwright smiling sardonically as both her story and our own unraveled yet again. While millions stand to lose their homes to faceless bureaucrats and millions more are thrown into the shrinking safety net, Machinal's message seems a sad coda, but one that is also strangely uplifting.

The play is peopled by stiffly drawn archetypes as a backdrop for one woman's attempt to live a free existence. After suffering a boorish husband, a parasitic mother, and her only exposure to love in the form of a meandering lothario, she takes matters into her own hands and is ultimately crushed. My memories of viewing impressionistic plays of this era are not happy ones. Either they are message sledge hammers wielded by directors who must be heard, or worse - drafting tables for over ambitious designers. I am elated to report that this is far from the case with Machinal. The restraint shown by the director's intelligent vision and the cast's note-perfect performances offer a show that rises above its own desperate story and furnishes a potent examination of ourselves.

Machinal
Written by Sophie Treadwell
Directed by Evren Odcikin
March 11 - 21, 2009 at 8 PM
Tickets $15-$35