R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)
Born in Malé Svatoňovice, in Bohemia, on January 9, 1890, Karel Čapek was a Czech journalist, writer and playwright. He worked on his first writings together with his brother Josef, and after 1917, began his freelance career which soon resulted in theatrical activity. R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is the Čapek play which introduced the term “robot” into the world culture. Planetary utopia, it suggests some ideas on ancestral fears of the twentieth-century man towards the speed of progress. The big innovation of the drama is in the reduction of distance between artificial creatures and humans. The robot is in fact a non-mechanical artificial worker, a simplified replica of man: R.U.R. is therefore a cry of alarm, a warning to the technological society. On the other hand, it was the spectacular and dramatic battle between men and robots that captured the attention and ushered in a trend that would have great success in the 20th century.
Karel Čapek,
R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots),
Edited by Alessandro Catalano,
Marsilio: Venice 2015,
176 pp.