Yimeng Xia

Machinal narrates a typical young woman’s desperate life in 1920s America, where she is trapped by her inevitable destiny as a woman of the time under the invisible manipulation of social expectations. I want to emphasise the young woman’s fragility which is caused by the uncomfortable world she lives in. I intend to force the audience to experience the hollowness of her life. To achieve this, I have transferred Machinalto the time and place we are currently in. Inspired by skyscrapers in Melbourne, the double-sided wall of the set consists of multiple mass-produced silver squares. The high reflective texture reminds us of the coldness of metal and machines. The revolve is the part of the set that facilitates transitions between episodes. This abstract response involves repetitive model making process. When working with black and sharp-edged furniture, the overall set composes a space with a sense of emptiness.

The young woman’s contemporary costumes running through nine episodes respond to the idea of repetition. Her costume changes appear as a part of the transitions of episodes. Similarly, to the set, colours are being used to communicate the ideas about the characters in their journey through the play. For example, the young woman wears a soft pink dress in the bar to show her brief escape from the manipulation of her unwanted husband and baby.