Dover Players presents little-produced play ‘R.U.R.’
By Charles Cassady
Insights
Published July 16, 2008

The science-fiction landmark of the summer is coming to North Olmsted. But it’s not the “X Files” sequel, or a TV-film “Terminator” continuation, or another (yawn) comic book superhero cinematization. In truth, it’s not even a movie.

It’s a rare revival by the Dover Players of a historic stage play entitled “R.U.R.,” a “fantastic melodrama” by Czechoslovakian author and playwright Karel Capek. If you haven’t heard of “R.U.R.” on your basic-cable package Sci-Fi Channel show, that’s because it goes back a bit. Even before classic “Star Trek.” Even before TV in the first place.

First produced in Prague in 1921, then translated into English in 1923, “R.U.R.” is the drama responsible for inventing and popularizing the word ‘robot.’

The early 21st century was right for a revisit to “R.U.R.,” said director Jim Volkert, a Brecksville native who now performs, as both actor, puppeteer and director, in live shows throughout northeast Ohio.

“There are robots on Mars, doing the exploring for us. There are robot vacuum cleaners, robot lawn mowers...That’s why this is very timely,” said Volkert.

“R.U.R.” stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots, in the show a company that mass-manufactures artificial people who do menial work in a future society. Nitpickers in the world of sci-fi (such as those who insist that ‘SF’ is the proper term, and ‘sci-fi’ only means juvenilia) point out that the slave humanoids envisioned by Capek are not mechanical in nature, like the Transformers or Pixar’s WALL-E, but rather androids of organic material, grown in vats. They are more like Frankenstein’s monster or the ‘replicants’ of “Blade Runner.”

Nonetheless, the playwright’s brother came up with the name for the creatures, taken from a Czech-language word ‘robota,’ denoting a serf or lowly agricultural laborer. The word stuck. Everyone knows what a robot is, even if only a fraction have heard of “R.U.R.”

And even fewer have seen “R.U.R.” performed. Some decades ago the old Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival gave it a rendition in Cleveland. “I’ve never seen it produced - anywhere,” said Vokert.

His is a slightly updated adaptation - replacing ancillary details such as telegraph communications with e-mail, something Capek never predicted. “I’ve reduced it a little. I’ve slimmed it down and tightened it to a little like an hour and a half,” said Volkert, who added that many theaters have to do the same to Shakespeare for more manageable running time, and that (like Shakespeare) Capek had a habit of repeating everything three times or so.

But the intent is nonetheless to do justice to the playwright’s themes. “That men, like God, are going to create things in their own image. That’s one of the messages.”

One idea Volkert found especially compelling is an explanation of why Rossum’s Universal Robots come in both male and female models - because society would be more comfortable with them that way instead of as one “gender neutral” version. “They’re supposed to be like people.”

Robots in concept were not unknown before “R.U.R.” Humanlike automatons of metal and gears appeared in literature even as far back as 1816 in E.T.A. Hoffman’s story “The Sandman” (the basis for the ballet “Coppelia”), and android beings were even more prevalent in fiction, the stage and early film. Not long after “R.U.R.” appeared, the German silent-film epic “Metropolis” depicted an electromechanical robot in memorable fashion; in fact, that robot’s appearance was copied somewhat for C-3PO in the “Star Wars” movies.

Not long ago a British stage-musical remake of “Metropolis” was a costly failure. Don’t expect “R.U.R.” in North Olmsted to dazzle you with LucasFilm-sized production values. “There’s a really nice story here. It doesn’t need all that special-effects stuff...I am not going for spectacle here,” said Volkert.

His robots will be actors in uniform-like costumes and basic makeup, with only slightly non-human mannerisms to set them apart. “We’re not trying to make them like HAL in ‘2001’ with affected voices. They’re not doing the moonwalk or the robot walk.”

Moreover, the Dover Players will enact “R.U.R.” in the round, at Old Town Hall (5186 Dover Center Road, North Olmsted). “There are no bad seats,” said Volkert.

Admission is free to the public, though a $5 donation is requested, especially for those who make reservations to guarantee their seats at this most unusual specimen of community theater.

“R.U.R.” performances begin Friday at 8 p.m. and continue Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with a closing 3 p.m. matinee on July 27. For reservations and more information, call Todd Evangelista at (440) 779-1284.