MACHINAL Presenation
MACHINAL Presenation
MACHINAL Presenation
Her story
Ruth Brown Snyder was a housewife from Queens, who began an affair in 1925 with Henry Judd
Gray, a married corset salesman. She began to plan the murder of her husband Albert, enlisting
Gray's help, but he appeared to be reluctant. Some claim that Ruth's distaste for her husband
apparently began when he insisted on hanging a picture of his late fiancée Jessie Guischard on the
wall of their first home and named his boat after her. Guischard, whom Albert described to Ruth as
"the finest woman I have ever met", had been dead for 10 years.[1] However, others have noted that
Albert Snyder was emotionally and physically abusive, blaming Ruth for the birth of a daughter
rather than a son, demanding a perfectly-maintained house, and physically assaulting both her and
their daughter, Lorraine, when his demands were not met. [2]
Ruth first persuaded Albert to purchase insurance, and with the assistance of an insurance agent
(who subsequently was fired and sent to prison for forgery), "signed" a $48,000 life insurance policy
that paid extra if an unexpected act of violence killed the victim. According to Gray, Ruth had made
at least seven attempts to kill Albert, all of which he survived. [3][4] On March 20, 1927, the
couple garrotted Albert and stuffed his nose full of chloroform-soaked rags, then staged his death as
part of a burglary.[4] Detectives at the scene noted that the burglar left little evidence of breaking into
the house. Moreover, Ruth's behavior was inconsistent with her story of a terrorized wife's
witnessing her husband being killed. [3]
Execution[edit]
Ruth was imprisoned at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York. On January 12, 1928, she became the
first woman to be executed at Sing Sing since Martha Place in 1899. She went to the electric
chair 10 minutes before Judd Gray, her former lover.[3][4] Her execution (by New York State
Electrician Robert G. Elliott) was caught on film at the moment electricity was running through her
body with the aid of a miniature plate camera strapped to the ankle of Tom Howard, a Chicago
Tribune photographer working in cooperation with the Tribune-owned Daily News.[7] Howard's
camera later was owned by inventor Miller Reese Hutchison[8] and later became part of the
collections of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.[7]
Ruth was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Her footstone reads "May R." and
includes her date of death.[9]
While incarcerated on death row, Ruth Snyder wrote a sealed letter which she requested be given to
Lorraine "when she is old enough to understand". [17]
Treadwell’s writing is impressive for how much it leaves out. She doesn’t need to
show us every detail of Helen’s honeymoon or home life to make us understand
her sense of suffocation. You only have to listen to the staccato exchanges
between Helen and George about a property deal (“Did they come through?” –
“Sure they came through”) to realise that Treadwell prefigured Pinter and
Mamet.
While her dialogue is stylised, Treadwell uses the polyphonic possibilities of
theatre to press home her point. From the outset, Helen seems surrounded by
“the purgatory of noise”, whether it be the clack of office machinery, the clatter of
garbage collectors or the drill that shreds her postnatal nerves.
Todd Haimes the artistic director of this production has stated that in this world there are no villains.
Has Treadwell created a world where everybody does their best?
Treadwell’s critique includes technology, medicine, law, motherhood, the press the tabloid mythology
and demonization, romance and religion.
We should also keep in mind the fact that it does not describe a penalty that today is obsolete.Capital
punishment, also called the death penalty, is a legal penalty in the United States, with it being
a legal punishment in 27 states, American Samoa, the federal government, and the military.
Would you choose to focus on one of those matters as a directorial point of view or in an adaptation?