One of the most thrilling shows on Broadway is about a woman who kills her husband in cold blood. That would pack in the tourists . . . if we were talking about "Chicago."
Sophie Treadwell's "Machinal" isn't a sexy musical but an obscure drama — one that hadn't been revived on Broadway since its 1928 premiere. It's written in a modernist prose style, which is quite abstract, at times even experimental.
All told, it's a tough sell, but director Lyndsey Turner and her star, Rebecca Hall — Scarlett Johansson's reasonable friend in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" — have made it a must-see.
It starts off brilliantly, with the tall, young Helen (Hall) trapped in a mass of straphangers on a packed subway car, which is rendered in all its claustrophobic horror.
The stage rotates — Es Devlin's set makes fantastic use of a large turntable — and we're now in a busy New York office, where Helen's a secretary.
Jane Cox's expressionistic lighting and Matt Tierney's inventive sound design help create a suffocating atmosphere. You can see the skittish Helen being driven nuts by the subway crowds, the clickety-clack of typewriters and her colleagues' incessant chatter.
"It's like I'm all tight inside," she tells her needy, nagging mother (Suzanne Bertish). "Sometimes I feel like I'm
stifling!"
Desperate to escape, Helen marries her domineering boss (Michael Cumpsty, looking like a baddie from a '30s noir flick). But she flinches at his touch — she hates his "fat hands" — and breaks down on her wedding night. She soon gives birth to a child she doesn't want, and later has an affair with a man (the strapping Morgan Spector) she meets in a speakeasy.
Things don't end well for anybody: The play is based on the real case of Ruth Snyder, who killed her husband in 1927 and was the first woman to die in the electric chair.
"Machinal" is a vivid, bracing portrait of a woman pushed to the edge, but it doesn't involve any weepy psychologizing. The dialogue is highly stylized and the sophisticated-looking production follows suit, a shocker coming from the usually conservative Roundabout.
What makes the show so fascinating is the contrast between its cerebral approach and Hall's compassionate performance. In her Broadway debut, the English actress effortlessly navigates stream-of-consciousness monologues while helping us relate to this opaque character.
Helen may feel like a cog in a machine, but Hall makes her all too human.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Rebecca Hall in thrilling revival of Sophie Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’
Dengan url
https://makananrasaenak.blogspot.com/2014/01/rebecca-hall-in-thrilling-revival-of.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Rebecca Hall in thrilling revival of Sophie Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Rebecca Hall in thrilling revival of Sophie Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar