“What does it mean to be human when our choices are shaped by algorithms and unseen systems?”
In this bold reimagining of Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal, the story is dismantled for the AI age, 2025. Shifting roles, immersive staging, and decentralised narratives reveal the fragmented truths of contemporary life, inviting audiences to confront their own complicity within invisible systems. Machinal 2025 exposes the forces that mechanise identity—and asks how we might reclaim our voices today.
Presented by InCircle Ensembling, a theatre practice built on the belief that theatre begins where we gather in a circle. Initiated by director Jay Yu-chieh Chiu, it is not a company or troupe, but a collective of practitioners as narrators. The circle of Machinal 2025 includes Bianka Dublewicz, Diana Dublewicz, Eero Chen Liu, Henry Fong, Mahalakshmi, Pauline Chabosseau, Peixuan Gu, Saraswathi Sukumar, and Shervine Thompson.
Supported by Camden People’s Theatre, Test Match programme. First debut.
"Our children live in the most deprived ward in London and their parents cannot afford to pay for the classes and activities many more privileged children enjoy after school and at the weekends. A free-to-access youth group run by a local theatre in a professional setting is an incredible opportunity."
Local school teacher
