40 Fun Facts About Machinal

After her murder conviction, how is the Young Woman put to death in the final episode of Machinal?

The electric chair silences her in the middle of a final cry, a fate borrowed from the real case behind the play.

Which real-life murderer, executed at the start of 1928, inspired the play Machinal later that year?

Ruth Snyder died that January, and Machinal reached Broadway in September, less than eight months after the execution.

Which American journalist wrote the play Machinal after attending a sensational murder trial?

Sophie Treadwell had seven plays staged on Broadway between 1922 and 1941, but Machinal is the one that lasted.

Which future Hollywood star made his Broadway debut as the lover in Machinal in 1928?

Clark Gable drew good reviews in the part, and one critic praised him as young, vigorous and brutally masculine.

What did a newspaperman strap to his ankle at the execution of the woman who inspired Machinal?

A miniature camera caught the moment for the New York Daily News, which ran the picture on its front page the next day.

In Machinal, whom does the Young Woman reluctantly marry despite finding him physically repulsive?

Her boss is patient and well off, and marrying him promises an escape from a job she finds stifling.

The title Machinal comes from which language, where the word means mechanical or automatic?

French was also the playwright's own subject: she took her degree in it at the University of California, Berkeley.

What does the Young Woman use to kill her husband in Machinal, copying a story her lover told?

A bottle of stones was her lover's own trick: he boasted of clubbing two captors with one, and his sworn statement later helps convict her.

Machinal's nameless characters and jarring sounds make it a landmark of which theatrical movement?

Expressionism shows the world as the main character feels it, which is why her co-workers in Machinal sound like parts of one machine.

Which 1944 film noir grew out of the same real murder case that inspired the play Machinal?

Double Indemnity began as a James M. Cain novella based on the 1927 killing, insurance policy on the husband included.

In Machinal, the lover's affidavit arrives from which country, where he once killed two captors?

Mexico is where the lover goes back to once the affair is over, leaving a written statement to do the damage in court.

Which pair of courtroom onlookers in Machinal describe the Young Woman's trial in opposite ways?

Two reporters read their notes aloud, one admiring her and one hostile, a pointed comment on how the press slants a trial.

In Machinal's final episode, who arrives to prepare the Young Woman for execution against her will?

Barbers come to shave a patch of her head before the execution, and she fights them off until they overpower her.

Which first name does Machinal eventually give its Young Woman, whose married surname is Jones?

Helen is paired with the plainest of surnames because the play presents her as an ordinary young woman who could be anyone.

In Machinal's opening scene, the Young Woman is late for work because she could not bear what?

The crowded subway makes her feel she is suffocating, the first sign of the trapped feeling that follows her through the play.

Which co-worker brings the Young Woman to the bar where she meets her lover in Machinal?

The Telephone Girl is carrying on an affair of her own with the lover's friend, and the two soon slip away to leave the new pair alone.

What is the full name of the Young Woman's lover in Machinal, read out with his affidavit in court?

Richard Roe is also the stock name lawyers pair with John Doe for an unnamed party, a fitting label in a play built from types.

Which one-word title does Machinal give the bar episode in which the Young Woman meets her lover?

Prohibited fits twice over: the play was written during America's ban on alcohol, and the affair that begins in the bar is forbidden too.

What does the Young Woman carry home from her lover's room in Machinal as a keepsake of the affair?

A blooming lily sits in a bowl on his windowsill, and his sworn statement later tells the court that she took it away with her.

In Machinal's hospital episode, which building-site noise drowns out the Young Woman's words?

Riveting from a tall building going up beside the ward hammers through the scene, in which she refuses to hold her newborn daughter.

Which actress first played Machinal's Young Woman, four years before co-starring in The Mummy?

Zita Johann turned down the lead in Universal's film of Show Boat so that she could star in Machinal on Broadway.

Which Broadway producer, lessee of the Plymouth Theatre, directed the first production of Machinal?

Arthur Hopkins produced and staged more than 80 plays in his career, among them works by Eugene O'Neill and Elmer Rice.

Under which alternative title was Machinal first performed in Britain in 1931?

The Life Machine was the London title in 1931, three years after the Broadway run; later British revivals went back to the original name.

After Broadway and London, Machinal found its greatest early success at a theatre in which city?

Moscow saw it at the Kamerny Theatre, and the playwright became the first American dramatist to win royalty payments from the Soviet Union.

Which Irish actress won an Olivier Award as the Young Woman in the National Theatre's 1993 Machinal?

Fiona Shaw took Best Actress for the role, years before a wider audience met her as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films.

Which director won an Olivier Award for staging Machinal at London's National Theatre in 1993?

Stephen Daldry later moved into film, making his feature debut with Billy Elliot and following it with The Hours.

Which British actress made her Broadway debut as the Young Woman in the 2014 revival of Machinal?

Rebecca Hall led a Roundabout Theatre staging whose set, costumes, lighting and sound all earned Tony nominations.

Which London theatre hosted the 2024 Machinal from Bath, starring Olivier nominee Rosie Sheehy?

The Old Vic took in the Theatre Royal Bath production for a spring run in its 1,000-seat auditorium.

Which future Bond villain played the husband in ITV's 1960 Armchair Theatre version of Machinal?

Donald Pleasence went on to play Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, seven years after acting opposite Joanna Dunham's Young Woman.

The 1990 Public Theater revival of Machinal, directed by Michael Greif, won three of which prizes?

Obie Awards went to actress Jodie Markell, to the direction and to the design; Greif later staged the original production of Rent.

Which revolutionary gave Machinal's playwright a 1921 interview that inspired her play Gringo?

Pancho Villa gave no other American journalist access to his hideout, and the two-day interview also fed her later novel Lusita.

Machinal's playwright sued which famous actor for borrowing from her play about Edgar Allan Poe?

John Barrymore planned to stage a Poe play credited to his wife, Michael Strange; the playwright's own Poe drama later reached Broadway as Plumes in the Dust.

Machinal's playwright reported from Europe as an accredited foreign correspondent during which war?

World War I kept her away from the front lines, so she volunteered as a nurse and wrote about what the fighting did to women.

The real killer who inspired Machinal was put to death at which New York prison in January 1928?

Sing Sing had not executed a woman since Martha Place in 1899, and she went to her death minutes before her former lover.

The real-life lover in the murder case behind Machinal travelled as a salesman of which product?

Corsets were the trade of Judd Gray, a married man from the New Jersey suburbs who had been reluctant to join the plot.

Which physical feature of the husband, large and flabby, most disgusts the Young Woman in Machinal?

His hands stay on her mind: in the hospital, her drifting thoughts picture even God with a pair just like them.

What false story does the Young Woman first tell the court about her husband's death in Machinal?

Intruders killed him, she claims, describing two men by the bed. The lie echoes the fake burglary staged in the real case behind the play.

Before her marriage in Machinal, the Young Woman lives with and supports which relative?

Her mother scoffs at the idea of marrying for love and pushes her towards the wealthy suitor, since his money would keep them both.

Machinal's playwright left the rights to her plays to which kind of institution in Tucson, Arizona?

A Catholic diocese inherited the rights under her will, and proceeds from productions go to help Native American children in Arizona.

In which inland California city was the playwright of Machinal born in 1885?

Stockton was also home to the family ranch run by her grandmother, a Scottish immigrant who was the strong woman of her childhood.