Review: Machinal by Paper Chairs

by Michael Meigs
Published on June 09, 2010

The pivotal scene between Crossno and Gabriel Luna, playing the casual seducer wafted with the winds of freedom and disengagement, is a beautifully understated passage, completely convincing in portraying the allure of this affair embraced by the young wife and mother.

This production of Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, currently playing at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, is a memorable staging of a 1928 shocker -- which in 21st century terms means that it is endearingly two dimensional.    Back in the 1920's,most American theatre art was unexciting, conventional or cast in moral platitudes.  At the same time, newspaper reporting of crimes was sensationalistic and very big business.  In a time when both  radio and cinema were still new, big …

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