Celebrate the impending Y2K disaster with Gorilla Theater and R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), a 1921 science fiction play by Karel Capek about robot workers that take over the world. The play's industrial age metaphor about the inhuman treatment of workers as button pushing machines is as much an issue at the end of this century as it was at it's beginning. This fascinating play combines a surrealistic and timeless quality with a cynical view of a potential technological utopia.
After the discovery of the "Formula for Life", a factory uses the chemical process to create robots-living work machines. Mass produced by the thousands, the robots are modified to make them more "human" in order that they might be better workers. After giving mankind a life of extreme leisure, the robots are enlisted to fight our wars. They eventually become self-aware, unite as a race, and begin to annihilate humanity.
Karel Capek was a remarkable visionary whose many short stories, plays and novels were regarded as rebellious, philosophical, and haunting in his native Czechoslovakia. R.U.R. confused many scholars as to its true meaning. Was it a criticism of socialism? capitalism? war? The threat of modern technology?
Capek asserted that his play was meant to show that the enemy is not technology itself or any particular social system, but the fact that man has created a society so complex that he is unable to control it. He also presents the point of view that if humankind were free of our drudgery by means of technology, we would not use the extra time to improve our minds and moral structure, but instead become torpid, as we seem to need some sort of struggle in order to continue evolving.
R.U.R. is a grand-daddy of science fiction and one of the first of its kind in the theater. This highly influential play coined the term "robot", and has had a profound effect on science fiction ever since. It is a milestone of avant-garde theater and a prophetic warning of technology's dangers.
Directed by Michelle Cotton, R.U.R stars Richard Buswell, Victor Castillo, Kevin Eib, George Forbes, Debra Glagola, Tim Hamilton, Stuart Kahn, Patrick Keens, Dean Kinsey, Bobby Ray, Carrie Rosetti, Matt Shephard, Rocky Supinger, Alex West, and Jess Young.
Rossum's Universal Robots runs December 1-18 at the Alanz Theater, 624 E. 63rd Street, Kansas City, MO at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Tickets are $10.00 ($8.00 for seniors and students) and can be ordered in advance by calling 816-444-2288. For more information please call Gorilla Theater at 816-471-APES.