A short play by man-of-the-people author Upton Sinclair, the titular “machine” is the unholy union of business and politics that leads to widespread corruption and the exploitation of the poor disenfranchised by the rich elitist power-brokers manipulating the system for their personal gain. The Machine seems eerily relevant over a hundred years since its initial publication in 1912, with the United States now literally being run by a billionaire businessman. The weakest aspect of the short seventy page play is that the characters never have the time to be developed much beyond the sociopolitical ideologies they represent, so the father/daughter conflict and budding love interest serve as little more than vehicles for lengthy discussions about corruption and responsibility. But Sinclair’s argument and position is made crystal clear, and the utilitarian dialogue rarely feels bogged down. In today’s polarized political climate, there are those that would probably denigrate this play based solely on its socialist message, but this is probably why it is still has a literary resonance over a century later. ( )

Relatively standard Sinclair fare, but this time in a play.

A short read, nowhere near as preachy as the end of The Jungle. ( )