Washington, D. C.: playing a 'lost' saxophone.(FRONT and CENTER)(Theater Review)

American Theatre, February, 2005 by Minwalla, Framji

The 1928 Broadway premiere of Sophie Treadwell's Machinal was a milestone in a burgeoning experimental movement in American playwriting. Under the influence of European Expressionism, many American writers were toying with form to convey a more subjective experience than the conventional drama of their day. Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell and Elmer Rice were among those who tried their hand at these experiments, often deploying theatrical strategies designed to distort the perception of events on stage.

While these writers became familiar names, Sophie Treadwell was largely forgotten, though she wrote more than 35 plays, seven of which were produced on Broadway. Revivals of Machinal at the New York Shakespeare Festival and London's Royal National Theatre in...

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