An Ageless Struggle

A couple of months ago, Chandler Studio promised to inaugurate a full season of plays in repertory, and this weekend they’re off to a running start with Sophie Treadwell’s intriguing 1928 classic, “Machinal.”

Although artistic director Michael Holmes is reluctant to mention that the play is 70 years old, its universality is assured: It is the story of a young woman caught up in the machinery of life.

“We’re going through the same thing now that we were going through then,” Holmes said. “Then it was the Machine Age, the Industrial Age. It was typewriters and riveting machines and all that. Now, it’s the computer and the fax machine. It’s about all of the technology that seems to be taking over the importance of the individual.”

Those are the monsters that confront the young heroine in “Machinal.” The play is also about women’s lib and men’s lib, but Holmes calls it simply “individual lib.” How do we find out who we are in this modern day of technology, he asks?

Treadwell, the playwright, was somewhat prophetic, said Holmes. And she was one of the first female playwrights to have her work appear on Broadway. She was also the first female war correspondent, and the first person ever to interview revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.

The play is somewhat of a challenge to the male and female leads. Part of that is the shadow cast by the two actors who created the roles in the 1928 premiere. The heroine was played by an up-and-coming actress named Zita Johann, who was the first wife of the legendary John Houseman. Playing opposite her, making his Broadway debut, was a laid-back young actor with big ears. His name was Clark Gable.

Treadwell is a figure of fascination for Johanna Parker, who plays the heroine in this revival. Before the play was even considered for production, Parker’s father clipped and sent an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about Treadwell and her life.

“My father knew that I would be interested in the fact that she was a feminist playwright,” she said. “I read the play, then Michael brought up that we were going to be doing it. What impassions me about it is the idea of freedom from the machine of life. Computers and faxes, in which I’m not very literate, sometimes can overwhelm your soul. My character is very vulnerable, and very strong at the same time. I identified with it from the very beginning.”

Anthony Holiday, who plays the male protagonist, finds the vulnerability just as appealing.

The character “wants to be loved,” Holiday said. “He wants to have something that he can’t have.” To achieve this, Holiday said, he must sacrifice his freedom, something that is “more important to him than anything else.”

Like most directors, Holmes feels that theater should be a learning tool as well as entertainment. “Sophie Treadwell’s purpose,” Holmes said, “was to write a modern play that is shocking, because it’s now. We want the audience to feel that it’s happening now. We’re living in a machine.”

* “Machinal,” Chandler Studio, 12443 Chandler Blvd., North Hollywood. Saturdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 30. $12.50. (818) 908-4094.