Director’s dream comes true with ‘Machinal’ at UNLV

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 9:38 a.m.

In 1927 it was the story the country couldn't get enough of: the sensational murder trial of New York socialite Ruth Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, was convicted of killing her wealthy husband and then sentenced to death by electrocution.

Amid the media flocking to the trial was journalist/feminist/playwright Sophie Treadwell, who used the story -- including Snyder's much-publicized execution -- as the basis for her expressionistic play, "Machinal."

To the delight of University of Nevada Las Vegas director Davey Marlin-Jones, a longtime admirer of Treadwell's work, "Machinal" will be presented this weekend at the campus' Black Box Theatre.

"There's a gusto in this play, an energy that is truly remarkable," said Marlin-Jones, who has been wanting for several years to present the play at UNLV.

"Machinal," which opened on Broadway in 1928, portrays the story of Helen Jones, a stenographer trapped in an industrialized society where it seems her only chance to escape her dull life and support her mother is to marry for money.

Through nine scenes, a busy backdrop of rhythmic typewriters, adding machines, telegraph keys and short, pointed lines of dialogue, the play attempts to deliver an implicit message about a woman's place in 1920s American society and the seemingly mechanized world.

However, the meek Jones (played by Melinda Pfundstein) barely compares to the real-life brassy Snyder.

"She's basically a woman you wouldn't notice in a crowd," Marlin-Jones said. "This woman in 'Machinal' is searching for the opportunity to make a decision and to have a choice. She doesn't know why but she feels like she's in a life subway and she can't find a seat."

Marlin-Jones said he's introduced "Machinal" to students in his playwrighting classes to open the imagination of new playwrights.

"(Treadwell) works almost totally in one-and-two-syllable words," he said. "So there is a kind of rivet-gun, pile-driver -- (type) of rhythm to the play."

Marlin-Jones is in his 13th year at UNLV. His past productions include "The Redness of the Woodpecker" and "The Last Clown of Limerick."

He first became interested in "Machinal" nearly 50 years ago and has been a fan of Treadwell's work since.

"If she had been born a few years later, I think her star would have ascended as high as Lillian Hellman's," he said. "She was an incredible woman."