Xiaonan Wu

Machinal is a play about the life of women in early 20th century. An impressive element of this play is how the writer creates the feeling of a mechanized world without mentioning machinery specifically. Sophie has created an invisible cage for the residents in the world, especially for Helen as she is the only character that feels trapped. Therefore, I have created a set from Helen’s perspective, allowing the audience to feel what it was like to be trapped. However, because this threshold is not physical, but actually psychological created by Helen herself, she is able to escape from the cage for a while when she falls in love with the man she meets in the bar. According to the conversation between Helen and her mother before, she desired for finding her true love and the man in the bar gave her the chance to do the things she really wanted to do and this made her feel free.

Since the play contains nine episodes and the transition between each episode is one of the most important things to concern, so I have decided to design a stage that is eligible for all the furniture to be placed on the stage at the beginning and use turntable for performing. There are three levels of the stage and each of them represent different periods of Helen's life. The first level is the part of before marriage and the bar, the second level is after marriage part and the third level is after murdering her husband. However, the part of Helen cheating with the man in the bar will be performed outside the main stage I created cause I wanted to create a freedom feeling for that part.

As for the lighting, I think Helen has different kinds of emotions in each episode, so the use of different coloured lighting will be suitable and there will also be focus light on the specific area for the playing.