MACHINAL

Machinal is inspired by the real life case of Ruth Snyder, a woman from New York who murder her husband with her lover. Snyder was sentenced to face the electric chair, and a photo secretly taken of her in the chair became highly publicised. The play follows themes of the capitalist machine, forced marriage, freedom to love, and a woman’s role. I set this conceptual design in New York in the 1920s. I set the bar in Harlem as I was highly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance art movement during the design process. Within my costume designs I drew particular inspiration from artists such as William H Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, and Arran Douglas.