MACHINAL

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“Machinal” offers a theatrical reflection on the relationship between the individual and the social mechanisms that regulate work, family, and intimacy in a world governed by efficiency and conformity. Adapting the play written in 1928 by American journalist and playwright Sophie Treadwell, the production directed by Diana Mititelu brings together actors from different generations of the Constanța State Theatre ensemble, alongside young collaborators, and explores from a contemporary perspective the condition of women, shaped by intimate relationships and the social pressures that regulate their existence.

Cast

• Young Woman: Mihaela Velicu
• Husband: Vlad Lință Lucian Pavel
• Mother: Laura Iordan
• Lover: Theodor Șoptelea
• Telephonist / Defence Lawyer: Ramona Niculae ,Catinca Hanțiu
• Archivist / A Man / Reporter 1 / Priest: Marian Adochiţei
• Clerk / Man 2 / Reporter 2 / Barber: Remus Archip
• Doctor / Boy / Prosecutor: Aurelian Culea
• Stenographer / Girlfriend / Court Clerk: Alina Manţu
• Nurse: Liliana Cazan
• Judge: Adrian Dumitrescu
• Other characters: Studenții Andreea Bureschi, ⁠Daria Cojocaru, ⁠Constantina Moroianu, ⁠Rebeca Zaiț, ⁠Nicolae Chiriac, Alina Constantin, Bianca Ghiță, Bianca Ilie

Reviews

The Constanța production pursues and expands two dimensions that fall under a mechanistic view of the human being and of society: the spiral of an incipient feminism, sharpened into clarity, and the less analytical depiction of a crime. Both are framed within a horizon defined by the desire to escape claustrophobia, of any kind: mental, emotional, familial. This is how the young Helen (becoming Helen Jones through marriage) finds herself caught within the mechanisms of a rigid world, outwardly serene yet fundamentally disorienting, a world that alienates the individual. In fact, I should have highlighted from the outset the set design imagined by scenographer Iulia Petrescu, an illustrative concept perfectly suited to Diana Mititelu’s directorial vision. A subway car on the left and a staircase symbolizing the ascent toward social success on the right open up a space for confrontation and interaction among the small office workers to which the protagonist belongs. Typists and clerks, office desks, jokes between colleagues. A lively, humorous, and captivating scene, made electrifying by the performance of four actors disguised as ridiculous clerks (Catinca Hanțiu, Marian Adochiței, Alina Manțu, and Remus Archip), establishes a comic atmosphere reminiscent of Modern Times, Chaplin’s film. But the jokes fade quickly, for amid the laughter we hear the sinister line “another suicide” on the subway, the reason for being late to work, an early hint of the tragic thread that will later unfold and intensify. Robotized work and robotized life produce victims. Mariana Gavriciuc’s choreography energizes the group of dancers made up of students from the Faculty of Arts at Ovidius University of Constanța. Their presence and movement enrich the performance and bring “a real, living bodily tension.” Vlad Lință’s character sketch (alternating in the role with Lucian Pavel) presents a husband who is cold, distant, and self-assured. The old-fashioned element in his appearance is his slick, brilliantine-coated hair, styled according to the trends of the era, a sort of Rudolf Valentino in continuous decay, growing apathetic and impenetrable like a living statue. And Helen’s Mother, portrayed by Laura Iordan, also falls temperamentally into a sphere of affection shaped by restrictive, outdated behavioral patterns.

Adrian Țion - Liternet.ro

https://agenda.liternet.ro/articol/31094/Adrian-Tion/De-la-reportaj-la-strategii-scenice-adiacente-Machinal.html

There are productions that tell a story, and productions that compel you to inhabit, if only for two hours, an idea. The Machinal staging at the Constanța State Theatre, directed by Diana Mititelu, belongs to the latter category. It does not illustrate a destiny; it dissects one. It does not seek the easy complicity of emotion, but exposes, with an almost clinical clarity, the way in which life can become a nearly flawless mechanism and, for that very reason, inhuman. At the center of this machine, Mihaela Velicu is the young woman with beautiful, captivating hands, unable to blend into the chorus of colleagues at work, burdened by the mother she must care for, shutting her dreams away in resignation, and becoming Mrs. Helen Jones. She builds a performance of controlled intensity. She does not play hysteria but accumulation. She raises her voice only when silence can no longer contain her. In her interpretation, there is a continuous tension between fragility and rigidity, between the desire to feel and the obligation to function. Panic, depression, panic attacks, crises of social claustrophobia (a need for air, a recurring, urgent need for air), the seemingly unjustified outbursts are not melodramatic flourishes but cracks in a wall built too perfectly. Mihaela Velicu’s approach brings the artistic intelligence of refusing to ask for compassion; instead, she forces us to witness the process through which a person becomes estranged from themselves. Alongside Mihaela Velicu, the cast on the night of the performance included Vlad Lință, Laura Iordan, Theodor Șoptelea, Ramona Niculae, Marian Adochiței, Remus Archip, Alina Manțu, Liliana Cazan, Aurelian Culea, and Adrian Dumitrescu, actors who managed to generate the collective energy required to achieve an expressionist tableau. Mariana Gavriciuc’s choreography, Cristian Niculescu’s lighting design, and Daria Ancuța’s dramaturgical translation supported the production’s aesthetic unity impeccably, maintaining a constant atmospheric tension. The student extras from the Faculty of Arts (Ovidius University) added a youthful yet disciplined energy, reinforcing the sense of a mechanized society in which everyone has a predetermined role.

Mirela Coman / Constănțeanul

https://ctnl.ro/2026/machinal-sau-alunecarea-in-spirala-masinii-de-tocat-a-societatii/