Statement: "Characters and Casting"

When a production company is looking into the casting of Ernst Toller's The Machine Wreckers, I feel that there will be few obstacles that will produce problems. Considering the play is an expressionist piece, there is no need to feel obligated to stick to strict traditional casting methods. Race, ethnicity, physical capability, and in some cases gender can be interchanged for this piece is centered on emotional expression and not concrete historical accuracy.


To begin with, directors and/or casting directors have a lot of room to work with in terms of race or ethnicity when casting a production of this show. This play, in plain terms, is a clear cut story about the Haves vs. the Have-Not’s. This universal notion, seen across the world in many countries and cultures does not require delving into racial issues. Nothing in the script leads a reader to deal with issues of race or ethnicity in any way. However, if someone were to make a directorial choice to examine the relationship between privileged and oppressed races, he or she could cast a production of this play with that in mind and explore the message it sends. For instance, an all minority casting of luddites and all majority casting of upper class characters could lend some different view to the story. This would not be completely outrageous since the character of Jimmy Corbett attempts to bring a treaty between the Haves and Have-Not’s, sending a positive message about tensions between races and ethnicities. Traditional or non-traditional, either way is completely acceptable as well as a happy medium between the two.


When talking about age constrictions in casting, the problem shifts a bit because there is a brutal historical reality being shown in this play. Child labor and its barbaric practices in the early 19th century is an important aspect of the story. We, the audience, are suppose to think it an atrocity that children are being overworked and mistreated and it would be contradictory to cast grown mean and women to play roles titled "boy" and "girl." Unless the company is able to find very youthful looking adults to play these roles, I do not feel that the audience will build a sympathy for their struggles and more importantly, separate them from the struggles of the adults in the play to provide for them. These young characters are hungry, helpless, and unable to work the hours that adults are capable of working. If the physical presence of the children does not convey the playwright's disgust for child labor, then the message is lost and the audience will have an inconsistent image of who is who and what is at stake. Lines given to child roles are simple, playful lines and lead me to believe that it was written that way for a practical reason in casting.

Lastly, I would like to address the casting of those who have physical disabilities. I feel that this show brings a lot of opportunity to those who are blind, deaf or bound to wheel chairs because many of the textile workers on strike may have dealt with these exact obstacles. Poverty in any area of the world inherently contains lower health care than those who are able to pay for proper medical attention. The script, in fact, calls for a blind man and deaf man to appear in the first act. The image of these two walking in the street, depending on each other's reliable senses, is a frightening truth of extreme poverty in Nottingham, England.