Sophie Treadwell’s iconic play Machinal offers us a tremendous opportunity to explore themes of alienation, isolation, and dehumanization.  Loosely based on the real-life story of Ruth Snyder (a woman that was executed by electric chair after being found guilty of murdering her husband), Machinal’s expressionistic style lets us view all of the play’s action through the eyes of the protagonist, identified in the play only as “Young Woman.”  Feeling greater and greater pressure from the noisy, claustrophobic, and cruel world that surrounds her, Young Woman struggles to create an authentic identity and push back against forces that deny her subjectivity.   

While Sophie Treadwell created The Young Woman in 1929, this character still feels relevant today.  Her character is one of profound sadness as she realizes again and again that things will never change.  And yet, she never seems to lose hope that at some point, she’ll be free.  This duality of emotion describes so many of us at this point in time.  Feeling defeated because abuses of power and systemic forms of injustice seem even more pervasive than ever before, and yet, many of us continue to foster feelings of deep hope and optimism that we are on the cusp of a seismic cultural shift towards greater gender and racial equality that is desperately needed and long overdue.