R.U.R.

Rating:
Summary: Prophetic and dated at the same time
Review: I first read this play in the late 1940's when I was in High School. The author died in 1938 at about the time Turing was "inventing" the Turing Machine. Perhaps the author intended this work as a parable about Bolshevism, but the steady growth of the computer makes it read today like a straight-forward prophecy which will come true in about 50 more years. The technology projected is all wrong in the details, of course, but it is fun to read today and draw the parallels and differences.

Rating:
Summary: Prophetic and dated at the same time
Review: I first read this play in the late 1940's when I was in High School. The author died in 1938 at about the time Turing was "inventing" the Turing Machine. Perhaps the author intended this work as a parable about Bolshevism, but the steady growth of the computer makes it read today like a straight-forward prophecy which will come true in about 50 more years. The technology projected is all wrong in the details, of course, but it is fun to read today and draw the parallels and differences.

Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: Looking for the first appearance of the word 'robot'? Look no further! Czech author Karel Kapek coined the term in this classic play. It is not only the first appearance of the word 'robot', (though, not the first appearance of a mechanical man), it is also a great sciene fiction story (although 'science fiction' was not a widely used term at the time).
Essentially, the story surrounds a manufacturing company that makes robots, and continues to make them in mass quantities even with the looming suspicion they are out of control. The robots revolt, and humanity is all but destroyed and replaced.
Very humorous and biting satire, R.U.R. should satisfy virtually any taste for a well written piece of fiction. Essential for sci-fi fans, and this edition, printed beautifully by Dover, at a very small price, is well worth obtaining ownership and then some!

Rating:
Summary: Great story about greed and robots
Review: Looking for the first appearance of the word 'robot'? Look no further! Czech author Karel Kapek coined the term in this classic play. It is not only the first appearance of the word 'robot', (though, not the first appearance of a mechanical man), it is also a great sciene fiction story (although 'science fiction' was not a widely used term at the time).
Essentially, the story surrounds a manufacturing company that makes robots, and continues to make them in mass quantities even with the looming suspicion they are out of control. The robots revolt, and humanity is all but destroyed and replaced.
Very humorous and biting satire, R.U.R. should satisfy virtually any taste for a well written piece of fiction. Essential for sci-fi fans, and this edition, printed beautifully by Dover, at a very small price, is well worth obtaining ownership and then some!

Rating:
Summary: The origin of species,
Review: This is only a short and very dated play, but it's also a significant piece of literature in it's own right. Without this Asimov would not have created the three laws, Metropolis would be quite different and C3PO & R2D2 would be non existent. All Science fiction fans should read this and learn how Capek created one of the staples of the genre. Be present at the birth of the robot.

Rating:
Summary: Early Critique of Globalization
Review: This is play is an excellent commentary on globalization that is still valid today. Consider the following segment of conversation that occurs when Helena Glory first meets Harry Domin, the general manager of the robot factory:

Domin: "What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?"

Helena: "Perhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking."

Domin: "No; the one that is the cheapest."

This was probably a cutting insight in 1922 when RUR appeared on Broadway. Colonialism was then at its peak but the citizens of Europe and America believed that their superior wealth was due to cultural values of honesty and hard work.

It is also interesting to see that the same story which introduced the word "robot" to the English language introduced the theme of robots running amok by refusing to obey humans. Sharing this theme (as well as minor details like the production capacity of exactly 1,000 robots per day), the recent movie "I, Robot" directed by Alex Proyas bears more resemblance to "RUR" than to Isaac Asimov's stories.

Despite the superb satire and historical significance, I rate "RUR" only as 3 because the plot and character development are unsophisticated by today's standards.

Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: this play was ok...it was a little on the freaky side..but it is ok. I had to read it for school and its a lot better than other plays we have read so far...i liked it i guess

Rating:
Summary: A classic play introducing robots.
Review: This science fiction play by the Czechoslovakian writer Karel Capek (1890-1938) introduced the word "robot" (from the Czech word "robota" for work). Any serious student of science fiction should read this play. A factory on an island produces robots (actually, in today's terminology, the products being made by this factory are androids, not robots) to do man's labor and to grow his food. But, as the years go by, governments misuse the robots, having them replace soldiers. Robots begin to be used in wars everywhere. They rebel and man is exterminated. However, the robots don't know how to build new robots and discover that they are doomed to extinction as well. But, the sole two robots of a later model discover beauty, compassion, and love. They become a new Adam and Eve. Interestingly, one of the characters in the play builds robots so that man won't have to work. Yet, he doesn't build any to do his work since it is something he enjoys doing.

Rating:
Summary: Awkward by Modern Standards But Still Very Resonate
Review: Today Karel Capek's R.U.R. is most famous as the work that introduced the word "robot" (from the Czech word "robit," meaning "work") and for its conceptualization of a bio-mechanical device in human form. Written in 1920, the play startled European audiences, but perhaps had its greatest impact on the New York stage in 1922, where it had particular relevance in the American upward-rush of industrialization of the roaring '20s.

Although the ideas that Capek broached remain extremely influential, the play itself is difficult to evaluate from a modern point of view because in many respects it conforms to then-popular but now outmoded ideas about dramatic structure. Even so, the story of a world gradually consumed and ultimately destroyed through its own technology remains a powerful one--as does the image of the robot, which gradually acquires an unexpected sense of identity and begins to vie with man for domination of the earth.

By and large, plays are written to seen rather than to be read, and this may be particularly true of R.U.R., which proves very difficult to visualize from the page. The seriocomic first act with its emphasis on exposition feels awkward to the modern mind, and the progression of the story has an obvious and awkwardly episodic feel. But it is worth pointing out that if R.U.R. seems obvious to us today, this is because its ideas have been so often used; everything from METROPOLIS to FORBIDDEN PLANET to TERMINATOR, from I ROBOT to RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA has borrowed from it heavily.

Ultimately, the play asks us to consider who will inherit the earth: man or what man has created? Audiences of the 1920s found this an extremely disconcerting question--and if anything, audiences and readers of the present day will find it more disconcerting still. A landmark in theatre history that will interest literary scholars, play-readers, and science fiction fans for generations to come. Assuming, as Capek points out, there are any.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer