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= R.U.R =
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Introduction
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'R.U.R.' is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel
Čapek. "R.U.R." stands for (Rossum's Universal Robots, a phrase that
has been used as a subtitle in English versions). The play had its
world premiere on 2 January 1921 in Hradec Králové; it introduced the
word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a
whole. 'R.U.R.' became influential soon after its publication. By
1923, it had been translated into thirty languages. 'R.U.R.' was
successful in its time in Europe and North America. Čapek later took a
different approach to the same theme in his 1936 novel 'War with the
Newts', in which non-humans become a servant-class in human society.
Roberts, Adam "Introduction", to 'RUR & War with the Newts'.
London, Gollancz, 2011, (pp. vi-ix).
Characters
======================================================================
Parentheses indicate names which vary according to translation. On the
meaning of the names, see Ivan Klíma: 'Karel Čapek: Life and Work'
(2002).
Humans !! Robots and robotesses * Harry Domin (Domain), general
manager, R.U.R. * Fabry, chief engineer, R.U.R. * Dr. Gall, head of
the Physiological Department, R.U.R. * Dr. Hallemeier (Hellman),
psychologist-in-chief * Busman (Jacob Berman), managing director,
R.U.R. * Alquist, clerk of works, R.U.R. * Helena Glory, president of
the Humanity League, daughter of President Glory * Nana (Emma),
Helena's maid * Sulla, a robotess * Marius, a robot * Radius, a robot
* Damon (Daemon), a robot * Helena, a robotess * Primus, a robot
Synopsis
==========
The play begins in a factory that makes artificial workers from
synthetic organic matter. (As living creatures of artificial flesh and
blood, that later terminology would call androids, the playwright's
'roboti' differ from later fictional and scientific concepts of
inorganic constructs.) Robots may be mistaken for humans but have no
original thoughts. Though most are content to work for humans,
eventually a rebellion causes the extinction of the human race.
Prologue (Act I in the Selver translation)
============================================
Helena, the daughter of the president of a major industrial power,
arrives at the island factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. Here, she
meets Domin, the General Manager of R.U.R., who relates to her the
history of the company. Rossum had come to the island in 1920 to study
marine biology. In 1932, Rossum had invented a substance like organic
matter, though with a different chemical composition. He argued with
his nephew about their motivations for creating artificial life. While
the elder wanted to create animals to prove or disprove the existence
of God, his nephew only wanted to become rich. Young Rossum finally
locked away his uncle in a lab to play with the monstrosities he had
created and created thousands of robots. By the time the play takes
place (circa the year 2000), robots are cheap and available all over
the world. They have become essential for industry.
After meeting the heads of R.U.R., Helena reveals that she is a
representative of the League of Humanity, an organization that wishes
to liberate the robots. The managers of the factory find this absurd.
They see robots as appliances. Helena asks that the robots be paid,
but according to R.U.R. management, the robots do not "like" anything.
Eventually Helena is convinced that the League of Humanity is a waste
of money, but still argues robots have a "soul". Later, Domin
confesses that he loves Helena and forces her into an engagement.
Act I (Act II in Selver)
==========================
Ten years have passed. Helena and her nurse Nana discuss current
events, the decline in human births in particular. Helena and Domin
reminisce about the day they met and summarize the last ten years of
world history, which has been shaped by the new worldwide robot-based
economy. Helena meets Dr. Gall's new experiment, Radius. Dr. Gall
describes his experimental robotess, also named Helena. Both are more
advanced, fully-featured robots. In secret, Helena burns the formula
required to create robots. The revolt of the robots reaches Rossum's
island as the act ends.
Act II (Act III in Selver)
============================
The characters sense that the very universality of the robots presents
a danger. Echoing the story of the Tower of Babel, the characters
discuss whether creating national robots who were unable to
communicate beyond their languages would have been a good idea. As
robot forces lay siege to the factory, Helena reveals she has burned
the formula necessary to make new robots. The characters lament the
end of humanity and defend their actions, despite the fact that their
imminent deaths are a direct result of their choices. Busman is
killed while attempting to negotiate a peace with the robots. The
robots storm the factory and kill all the humans except for Alquist,
the company's Clerk of the Works (Head of Construction). The robots
spare him because they recognize that "He works with his hands like a
robot. He builds houses. He can work."
Act III (Epilogue in Selver)
==============================
Years have passed. Alquist, who still lives, attempts to recreate the
formula that Helena destroyed. He is a mechanical engineer, though,
with insufficient knowledge of biochemistry, so he has made little
progress. The robot government has searched for surviving humans to
help Alquist and found none alive. Officials from the robot government
beg him to complete the formula, even if it means he will have to kill
and dissect other robots for it. Alquist yields. He will kill and
dissect robots, thus completing the circle of violence begun in Act
Two. Alquist is disgusted. Robot Primus and Helena develop human
feelings and fall in love. Playing a hunch, Alquist threatens to
dissect Primus and then Helena; each begs him to take him- or herself
and spare the other. Alquist now realizes that Primus and Helena are
the new Adam and Eve, and gives the charge of the world to them.
Čapek's conception of robots
======================================================================
The robots described in Čapek's play are not robots in the popularly
understood sense of an automaton. They are not mechanical devices, but
rather artificial
biological organisms that may be mistaken for humans. A comic scene at
the beginning of the play shows Helena arguing with her future
husband, Harry Domin, because she cannot believe his secretary is a
robotess:
DOMIN: Sulla, let Miss Glory have a look at you.
HELENA: (stands and offers her hand) Pleased to meet you. It must be
very hard for you out here, cut off from the rest of the world.
SULLA: I do not know the rest of the world Miss Glory. Please sit
down.
HELENA: (sits) Where are you from?
SULLA: From here, the factory.
HELENA: Oh, you were born here.
SULLA: Yes I was made here.
HELENA: (startled) What?
DOMIN: (laughing) Sulla isn't a person, Miss Glory, she's a robot.
HELENA: Oh, please forgive me...
His robots resemble more modern conceptions of man-made life forms,
such as the Replicants in 'Blade Runner', the "hosts" in the
'Westworld' TV series and the humanoid Cylons in the re-imagined
'Battlestar Galactica', but in Čapek's time there was no conception of
modern genetic engineering (DNA's role in heredity was not confirmed
until 1952). There are descriptions of kneading-troughs for robot
skin, great vats for liver and brains, and a factory for producing
bones. Nerve fibers, arteries, and intestines are spun on factory
bobbins, while the robots themselves are assembled like automobiles.
Čapek's robots are living biological beings, but they are still
'assembled', as opposed to 'grown' or 'born'.
One critic has described Čapek's robots as epitomizing "the traumatic
transformation of modern society by the First World War and the
Fordist assembly line".
Origin of the word robot
==========================
The play introduced the word 'robot', which displaced older words such
as "automaton" or "android" in languages around the world. In an
article in 'Lidové noviny', Karel Čapek named his brother Josef as the
true inventor of the word. In Czech, 'robota' means forced labour of
the kind that serfs had to perform on their masters' lands and is
derived from 'rab', meaning "slave".
The name 'Rossum' is an allusion to the Czech word 'rozum', meaning
"reason", "wisdom", "intellect" or "common sense". It has been
suggested that the allusion might be preserved by translating "Rossum"
as "Reason" but only the Majer/Porter version translates the word as
"Reason".
Production history and translations
======================================================================
The work was published in two differing versions in Prague by
Aventinum, first in 1920, followed by a revised version in 1921. After
being postponed, it premiered at the city's National Theatre on 25
January 1921, although an amateur group had by then already presented
a production.{{NoteTag|The world premiere was planned to be in the
National Theater in Prague, but had to be postponed to 25 January
1921. The amateur theater group 'Klicpera' in Hradec Králové, which
was supposed to mount a production after the premiere, was not
informed about the date change in the National Theater, so their
opening night on 2 January 1921 was the actual world premiere.}}
By 1921, Paul Selver translated either the original 1920 edition of
'R.U.R.' or a manuscript copy close to this version into English. He
probably translated the play freelance, and sold it to St Martin's
Theatre in London. Selver's translation was adapted for the British
stage by Nigel Playfair in 1922, but it was not produced straight
away. Later that year performance rights for the U.S. and Canada were
sold to the New York Theatre Guild, perhaps during Lawrence Langner's
visit to Britain. Playfair's version included several changes to
Čapek's original play, such as renaming the acts (the prologue became
act one, and the heavily abridged final act became the epilogue),
omitting around sixty lines (including most of Alquist's final
speech), adding several more lines, and removing the robot character
Damon (giving his lines to Radius). The omission of some lines may
have been censorship from the Lord Chamberlain's Office, or
self-censorship in anticipation of this, while some other changes
might have been made by Čapek himself if Selver was working from a
manuscript copy. An edition of Playfair's adaptation was published by
the Oxford University Press in 1923, and Selver went on to write a
satiric novel 'One, Two, Three' (1926) based on his experiences
getting 'R.U.R.' staged.
The American première was produced by the Theatre Guild at the Garrick
Theatre in New York City in October 1922, where it ran for 184
performances. In the first performance, Domin was portrayed by Basil
Sydney, Marius by John Merton, Hallemeier by Moffat Johnston, Alquist
by Louis Calvert, Busman by Henry Travers, the robot Helena by antiwar
activist Mary Crane Hone in her Broadway debut, and Primus by John
Roche. Spencer Tracy and Pat O'Brien played robots in their Broadway
debuts.
This production was based on Playfair's adaptation, though Theresa
Helburn claimed that, together with two Czechs, they closely compared
his version against Čapek's original text, and that all changes from
the original were made by the Theatre Guild as part of the rehearsal
process. Doubleday published this version of the play in 1923, though
it omitted a change noted by John Corbin in the 'New York Times', of
the robot Helena holding a robot baby in the final scene.
In April 1923 Basil Dean produced 'R.U.R.' in Britain for the Reandean
Company at St Martin's Theatre, London. This version was based on
Playfair's adaptation, but omitted the characters Fabry and
Hallemeier, and included several of the New York Theatre Guild
revisions. The British Library holds a typescript copy of this version
of the play, which had been submitted by St Martin's Theatre to the
Lord Chamberlain's Office two weeks before the play opened.
In the 1920s, the play was performed in a number of American and
British cities, including the Theatre Guild "Road" in Chicago and Los
Angeles during 1923.
In June 1923, Čapek sent a letter to Edward Marsh, with the final
lines of 'R.U.R.' that had been omitted from the Selver/Playfair
editions, which he described as being "suppressed in [the] English
version". This letter is held in Southern Illinois University
Carbondale's Morris Library, along with an English translation of
these lines, perhaps in Marsh's handwriting. This translation was
published in the journal 'Science Fiction Studies' (2001). A full
translation of the final lines of the 1921 version of the play was
published in the journal 'ICarbS' (1981).
In 1989, a new, unabridged translation by Claudia Novack-Jones, based
on Čapek's revised 1921 version, restored the elements of the play
eliminated by Playfair. Another unabridged translation was produced by
Peter Majer and Cathy Porter for Methuen Drama in 1999. An open access
unabridged translation by David Wyllie was published by the University
of Adelaide in 2006, and updated in 2014.
In 2024, MIT Press published the book 'R.U.R. and the Vision of
Artificial Life', which offered a new translation of the original 1920
edition by Štěpán Šimek. The book also contained a collection of
essays reflecting on the play's legacy from scientists and scholars
who work in artificial life and robotics.
Critical reception
====================
Reviewing the New York production of 'R.U.R.' in 1922, 'The Forum'
magazine described the play as "thought-provoking" and "a highly
original thriller". John Clute has lauded 'R.U.R.' as "a play of
exorbitant wit and almost demonic energy" and lists the play as one of
the "classic titles" of inter-war science fiction. Luciano Floridi has
described the play thus: "Philosophically rich and controversial,
'R.U.R.' was unanimously acknowledged as a masterpiece from its first
appearance, and has become a classic of technologically dystopian
literature." Jarka M. Burien called 'R.U.R.' a "theatrically
effective, prototypal sci-fi melodrama".
On the other hand, Isaac Asimov, author of the 'Robot' series of books
and creator of the Three Laws of Robotics, stated: "Čapek's play is,
in my own opinion, a terribly bad one, but it is immortal for that one
word. It contributed the word 'robot' not only to English, but through
English, to all the languages in which science fiction is now
written." In fact, Asimov's "Laws of Robotics" are specifically and
explicitly designed to prevent the kind of situation depicted in
'R.U.R.', since Asimov's robots are created with a built-in total
inhibition against harming human beings or disobeying them.
Despite getting mostly positive responses, Čapek himself was very
disappointed by critics' simplistic understanding of the play. He saw
the play as part comedy, and ending with faith that humanity would
survive albeit in a different form, while the critics often considered
it to be pessimistic or nihilistic, and purely either an updated
'Frankenstein', an anti-capitalist satire, or a critique of
contemporary political ideologies. The critics' interpretation may
have been influenced by how heavily abridged the final act (or
Epilogue) was in the Selver/Playfair translation.
Adaptations
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* On 11 February 1938, a 35-minute adaptation of a section of the play
was broadcast on BBC Television -- the first piece of television
science-fiction ever to be broadcast. Some low quality stills have
survived, although no recordings of the production are known to exist.
In 1948, another television adaptation – this time of the entire play,
running to 90 minutes -- was broadcast by the BBC, with Radius played
by Patrick Troughton. Although some photographs exist, no audio or
visual recordings of this production survive.
* BBC Radio has broadcast a number of productions, including a 1927
2LO London version, a 1933 BBC Regional Programme version, a 1941 BBC
Home Service version, and a 1946 BBC Home Service version,. BBC Radio
3 dramatised the play again in 1989, and this version has been
released commercially. A light-hearted 2-part musical adaptation was
broadcast on April 3 and 10, 2022, on BBC Radio 4, with story by
Robert Hudson and music by Susannah Pearse; the second episode
continues the story after all humans have been killed and the robots
now have emotions.
* The Hollywood Theater of the Ear dramatized an unabridged audio
version of 'R.U.R.', which is available on the collection '2000x:
Tales of the Next Millennia.'
* In August 2010, Portuguese multi-media artist Leonel Moura's
'R.U.R.: The Birth of the Robot', inspired by the Čapek play, was
performed at Itaú Cultural in São Paulo, Brazil. It utilized actual
robots on stage interacting with the human actors.
* Director James Kerwin's 1960s-style short film 'R.U.R.: Genesis' --
starring Chase Masterson and Kipleigh Brown and loosely based upon the
Čapek play--was shot in 2013. After playing on the festival circuit,
the film screened at Cafe Neu Romance in Prague in 2015 and was
released on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.
* An electro-rock musical, 'Save the Robots' is based on 'R.U.R.',
featuring the music of the New York City pop-punk art-rock band
Hagatha. This version with book and adaptation by E. Ether, music by
Rob Susman, and lyrics by Clark Render was an official selection of
the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival season.
* On 26 November 2015 'The RUR-Play: Prologue', the world's first
version of 'R.U.R.' with robots appearing in all the roles, was
presented during the robot performance festival of Cafe Neu Romance at
the gallery of the National Library of Technology in Prague. The
concept and initiative for the play came from Christian Gjørret,
leader of "Vive Les Robots!" who, on 29 January 2012, during a
meeting with Steven Canvin of LEGO Group, presented the proposal to
Lego, that supported the piece with the LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic kit.
The robots were built and programmed by students from the R.U.R team
from Gymnázium Jeseník. The play was directed by Filip Worm and the
team was led by Roman Chasák, both teachers from the Gymnázium
Jeseník.
* On 28 May 2022, Toronto's Tapestry Opera premiered 'R.U.R. (A
Torrent of Light)', composed by Nicole Lizée with a libretto by
Nicolas Billon. The opera went on to win 6 Dora Mavor Moore Awards and
the 2023 Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New
Opera.
* On 21 June 2024 an adaptation of the play was staged in Australia at
Phoenix Theatre, Coniston. The adaptation leaned into the science
fiction inspiration it gave, with the scripts alteration containing
over 100 references to popular sci-fi franchises otherwise inspired by
'R.U.R.' The play is available to watch on YouTube.
* In 2024, Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas began filming a feature
film musical adaptation of the play.
* A separate adaptation is being developing by James Kerwin, who
previously created the short film 'R.U.R.: Genesis'.
In popular culture
======================================================================
* Eric, a robot constructed in Britain in 1928 for public appearances,
bore the letters "R.U.R." across its chest.
* The Soviet film 'Loss of Sensation' (1935), although directly based
on the novel 'Iron Riot' (1929), has a similar concept to 'R.U.R.',
and all the robots in the film prominently display the name "R.U.R.".
* In the American science fiction television series 'Dollhouse', the
antagonist corporation, Rossum Corp., is named after the play.
* In the 'Star Trek' episode "Requiem for Methuselah", the android's
name is Rayna Kapec (an anagram, though not a homophone, of Capek,
that is, Čapek without its háček).
* In the two-part 'Batman: The Animated Series' episode "Heart of
Steel", the scientist that created the HARDAC machine is named Karl
Rossum. HARDAC created mechanical replicants to replace existing
humans, with the ultimate goal of replacing all humans. One of the
robots is seen driving a car with "RUR" as the license plate number.
* In the 1977 'Doctor Who' serial "The Robots of Death", the robot
servants turn on their human masters under the influence of an
individual named Taren Capel.
* In the Norwegian TV series 'Blindpassasjer' (1978), Rossum is the
name of a planet ruled by robots.
* In the rebooted science fiction series 'The Outer Limits' (1995), in
the remake of the "I, Robot" episode from the original 1964 series,
the business where the robot Adam Link is built is named "Rossum Hall
Robotics".
* The 'Blake's 7' radio play 'The Syndeton Experiment' (1999) included
a character named Dr. Rossum who turned humans into robots.
* In the "Fear of a Bot Planet" episode of the animated science
fiction TV series 'Futurama', the Planet Express crew is ordered to
make a delivery on a planet called "Chapek 9", which is inhabited
solely by robots.
* Within the 2005 IDW continuity of 'Transformers'',' the concept of
the brain module, spark, and transformation cog being vital and
dependent on the health of each other is called "Rossum's Trinity".
* In Howard Chaykin's 'Time²' graphic novels, Rossum's Universal
Robots is a powerful corporation and maker of robots.
* In 'Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone', when Wolff wakes
Chalmers, she has been reading a copy of 'R.U.R.' in her bed. This
presages the fact that she is later revealed to be a gynoid.
* In the 2016 video game 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided', 'R.U.R.' is
performed in an underground theater in a dystopian Prague by an
"augmented" (cyborg) woman who believes herself to be the robot
Helena.
* The main protagonist in Peter Brown’s 'The Wild Robot' series
(2016-2023) is “a robot character named Rozzum (a subtle nod to
Čapek’s play)”.
* In the 2018 British alternative history drama 'Agatha and the Truth
of Murder', Agatha is seen reading 'R.U.R.' to her daughter Rosalind
as a bedtime story.
* In the film 'Mother/Android' (2021), the play 'R.U.R.' of Karel
Čapek comes up. In the movie, Arthur, an AI programmer, turns out to
be an android.
* A musical titled 'Entropics', based on the 'R.U.R.' play, has been
written and performed in Chicago in 2024.
* The 'Capek' typeface, designed in 2024 by the french artist Aurélien
Vret for 'Typofonderie', is based on the 'R.U.R.' first edition cover.
* In the 2024 American animated movie 'The Wild Robot', the model name
of the protagonist robot is "ROZZUM Unit 7134".
See also
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* AI takeover
* 'The Steam Man of the Prairies' (1868), an early American depiction
of a "mechanical man"
* Tik-Tok, L. Frank Baum's earlier depiction (1907) of a similar
entity
* 'Detroit: Become Human' (2018), a narrative video game built around
a rebellion by androids who become sentient.
External links
======================================================================
*
*
* [
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13083 'R.U.R.' in Czech] from
Project Gutenberg
* [
http://www.sci-fi-london.com/news/festival/2010/10/rur-reading
Audio extracts from the SCI-FI-LONDON adaptation]
* [
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=728 Karel
Čapek bio.]
*
[
https://archive.org/stream/rurrossumsuniver00apekuoft#page/n0/mode/2up
Online facsimile version of the 1920 first edition in Czech.]
*
*
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=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R
