Review: MACHINAL, Theatre Royal Bath

With the AI (artificial intelligence) summit at Bletchley Park this week, Machinal at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, couldn’t be more timely.

Machinal, which means mechanical or automatic, refers to machines increasingly taking over the world. It’s a man’s world dominated by new-fangled devices – think adding machines, typewriters and even the subway system that takes people to work. American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell’s 1920s play also explores the mechanical way people lead their lives.

Based on the real-life case of Ruth Snyder ­– the first woman in America to be executed by electric chair in 1928 for murdering her husband – Treadwell attended the court proceedings and then wrote a fictionalised account of the events. The sensationalised case later inspired a wide range of works such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion albums.

Five-time Olivier award-winning director Richard Jones offers us an ingenuous and fast-paced, revival in the intimate environs of the Ustinov’s 126-seat studio.

His modern version of Machinal has authority from the start. We’re in his capable hands from the moment Young Woman (the characters aren’t named) has a panic attack on a crowded subway and turns up late at the office where she can’t cope. Rosie Sheehy’s bravura performance as Young Woman is both physical and emotionally exhausting.

All the cast is first-rate, thanks to dynamic direction by Jones and assistance from movement director Sarah Fahie. There’s a wonderful rhythm to Runyon-esque dialogue and characters’ gestures throughout – particularly in the early, knockout office sequence where Carla Harrison-Hodge totally steals the scene as Telephone Girl.

Some other members of the ensemble, who turn out equally exemplary performances, are worthy of mention. Tim Frances is a very solid Husband and Buffy Davis (Jolene in The Archers) a droll Irish mother. Sam Alexander doubles up as Prosecution Lawyer and Older Man at Bar, and Daniel Bowerman stands out in several roles, notably as Prisoner where he belts out a freedom song.

Hyemi Shin’s pie wedge shaped set (perhaps a nod to the Flatiron Building, finished in 1902) with yellow walls, hidden doors and a point leading to nowhere adds to a nightmare story that could have been crafted by Kafka. Wooden boards with titles such as To Business, At Home, Honeymoon, Maternal, Prohibited, Intimate and The Law are hoisted up to cast shadows effectively lit by Adam Silverman.

The rhythm of Benjamin Grant’s tremendous soundscape is repetitive, disruptive and discordant, reflecting Young Woman’s unhappy state of mind and strong themes of capitalism, gender and social inequality raised in the play.

Thanks to Deborah Warner, artistic director of the Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal Bath, audiences are able to enjoy creative gems in a small, but mighty space. She’s providing a mix of dance, opera, recitals and theatre this season, with the latest offering, Machinal, one of the best productions I’ve seen over the past year.

Machinal runs at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio until November 18

Photo credits: Foteini Christofilopoulou

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