The first review is in. The Tampa Tribune doesn’t have it linked yet on their main site, but the review is great.
When a long-forgotten play returns to the stage, the first thing you have to ask is : Was it worth rediscovering? In the case of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 “Machinal” on stage at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Shimberg Playhouse courtesy of Jobsite Theater, the answer is yes.
Director Chris Holcom, with help from set designer Brian Smallheer and light and sound designer Dickie Corley, creates an onstage world of industrial angles and oppresive grays in which the ensemble cast moves with robotic precision. Think Theodore Dreiser meets “Brazil.”
Dena Cousins…is riveting as the increasingly fragile heroine. Some of her scenes tread very close to Joan Crawford-esque excess, but it’s the character who seems unbalanced, not the performance. In a series of smaller roles, Katrina Stevenson has a wonderful doll-like physicality with a satirical edge, and Caroline Jett makes a chilling mother. Michael C. McGreevy is blithely unbearable as the husband who sees his wife as one more business deal to seal.
Boo-yah.
It’s not a “perfect” review, but I felt that her criticisims were honest and fair.
Of course, having the words “Michael C. McGreevy is blithely unbearable as the husband” in print is perhaps not the most comforting thing ever written about me. I’m sure that if my ex sees that she’s going to get quite a kick out of it.
There are two weekends left, my friends. You’re NOT going to see this kind of theater performed often in the area. Support something different and out of the norm. Go see “Machinal.”
Tickets available online or by calling the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center box office at 813-229-STAR (7827)
*** Edit *** The review can now be read here.
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