Machinal
By Sophie Treadwell
By Sophie Treadwell
Exec
Director - Esther Butt
Producer - Emily Harper
Special Thanks
Noah Devereux
Tobi Broome
Prod
Set Designers - Annie Roux
Lighting Designer - Malachi Atherton
Sound Designer - Ben Shackleton-Waller
Costume Designer - Sangeeta Sathyanarayana
Assist. Costume - Khooshey Gudka
Stage & Props Manager - Amy Vyskocil-Flint
Assist. Stage & Props - Beth McVicar
Intimacy Coordinator - Emily Hygate
Photographer - Josh Bibby
Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal was written in anger in the 1920’s. It is an outcry against the patriarchal machine Treadwell observed the western world as and we feel it is unfortunately becoming more and more politically relevant. The nine scenes follow ‘Young Woman’ as she moves through her life at work, at home, through marriage and in a final, desperate pursuit of freedom. Her very sense of being slowly unravels at the influence of the men in her life.
Machinal appeared on the spring line-up as the week 4 weekend show, with performances from March 6-8th, 2026.
On this project, I worked alongside a first time ASM. We had a great experience working together as I taught her the ropes of stage management for the venue. We worked together to source the many props and manage it alongside our given budget, which were tracked via spreadsheets. Some notable props that we needed to source were office "machines" (I was able to find a working vintage adding machine for £15), the infamous lily bowl, creating evidence bags for the trial scene, as well as handling food and drinks onstage. Besides constructing the props table, we also were tasked at clearing backstage in order to store set pieces. This was particularly necessary due to the many set transitions that took place, and that we would have to execute. We worked alongside the set designer to perform these set changes. Often times, this would overlap with the presetting/hand-off of props to actors, so during these often busy scene changes, we constructed a list of what the backstage team of three would complete to ensure all was properly set. Although working in the space as a stage manager multiple times at this point, this was actually the first time I was asked to perform set changes during a show. Although intimidating at first, once we had distinguished what each of us were doing I felt very confident in our abilities to execute them. I was very thankful to work alongside a truly stellar team!