The Hunter College Department of Theatre is proud to present its spring production, Machinal, directed by outside professional director Lee Sunday Evans and featuring a cast and crew of Hunter students. Machinal, written in 1928 by journalist and playwright Sophie Treadwell, has been performed throughout the past almost-century to widely ranging audience reactions and critical responses. Today, director Evans is seeking to use the text to ask questions about feminism and progress; she has cast multiple student actors in the central role of Helen and has placed each scene in a different decade, disrupting the continuity and calling into question women’s feelings of centrality, agency and place in society.
“Hunter Theatre productions provide an opportunity for young theater artists to work at their craft—onstage and behind the scenes—in ways that reflect and engage the wider world. Sophie Treadwell’s groundbreaking Machinal remains a touchstone of women’s experience, and Lee Sunday Evans’ production brings it literally up to the minute,” says Gregory Mosher, Patty and Jay Baker, Chair of Theater at Hunter.
