SHAKESPEARE CLUB,

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17751, 1 July 1929, Page 6

SHAKESPEARE CLUB,

READING OF “R.U.R.” STRIKING FUTURIST PLAY. A full house greeted the Hamilton Shakespeare Club’s reading of “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots). The play, which is the work of the Hungarian dramatist, Karel Capek, is a mixture of fancy, melodrama and philosophy. It was produced in London in 1923, and was the most discussed play of the year. Rossum, a scientist, after a lifetime of experiment in his laboratory, lias discovered how to make Robots, or machine-men. They play opens in a remote island, where, to cheapen labour and output, Robots are being manufactured and sold in thousands at a few dollars each to industrialists in all parts of the world. Rossum’s Robots are machines made in the likeness of men and women. They have neither soul nor sex, and they do all Hie dirty work of the world. A Robot lives twenty years, then it becomes worn out and is sent to the stamping mill. The first Robots had no feelings, hut the inventors subsequently gave them feelings to prevent them doing barm to themselves in the machines. For one reason' and another, the Robots become more human in their emotions, and with the development of the senses comes the desire for mastery over their masters. Eventually there is a rising against mankind. Man, set free from labour had already become sterile, but the Robots did not know of his impending doom. The Robots of the world unite and destroy their makers until there is only one human being left in the world. Then despair comes on the Robots. The formula for their manufacture had been destroyed at the time of the insurrection, and the only man left cannot remember it or thirtlc of a new one. The Robots are therefore defeated in the hour of victory. ■ln twenty years there will not be a Robot left. Then two of them, a male and a female, discover that they have developed human affections. At last all is well with the world, for in these two we see a new Adam and a new Eve.

The time of the play is the year 1950. Mr Capck, one surmises, fears the coming of the day when all the work of the world wilt be done by machines. So regarded, the play is a denouncement of our mechanical civilisation.

The club gave an excellent rendering of the play. Considering the absence of scenery and the difficulties of the piece, a very realistic atmosphere was secured, and the large audience followed the reading with interest. Miss Helen Heywood, who made her first appearance, assumed the double role of Helena Glory, the Professor’s daughter, and Helena the Robotess, and read with feeling and intelligence. All the principal parts and some of the minor, notably Mrs Kaber-Harrison’s interpretation of “Emma,” were treated with finish and distinction. The Club is to be congratulated on the range and variety of plays it is introducing to Hamilton audiences, and on the high standard of reading maintained.