Imagine a world where humans coexist with robots; where machines would do everything; where humans are no longer the largest population on earth; where humans have to fear for their life. This fall, join the Guilford College Theater Company in its rendition of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek and directed by Tim Hanna, Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Studies.

If you enjoyed The Terminator or you find the possible creation of artificial intelligence enthralling, then you will find R.U.R. quite enjoyable. Robots, greedy directors, and scientific experiments gone astray await you in Sternberger Auditorium.

R.U.R. was written in 1920 and premiered in Prague in 1921. The immediate success of the play popularized the term robot, which was coined by Karel Capek’s brother Josef Capek, a renowned Czech Republic writer. The play deduces numerous messages, one of which is communism, an ultimate society which institutes a fear of dictatorship.

“Everyone will be able to take as much as he needs. There’ll be no more poverty. Yes. People will be out of work, but there’ll be no work left to be done. Everything will be done by living machines. People will only do what they enjoy. They will live only to perfect themselves,” said fictitious character Harry Domain, director of Rossum’s Universal Robots played by junior Derek Loehr.

The plot of the play is essentially five genius men who put their brains together and create the ultimate worker: the Robot. The Robot is produced at a speed that humans cannot produce young at and so more are created in a shorter amount of time. Ten years later, mutiny occurs and humans have to fear for their life. For around every bend in the road, and within every dark alley lies a robot with one mission, to ‘exterminate the human race’.

“I think in the end it’s a play that deals with a very serious subject matter in a way that’s both serious and lighthearted. For instance, you’re watching the end of the world yet still laughing and that’s okay,” said sophomore Ryan Furlough who plays Robot Marius in R.U.R.

Sophomore Heydn Erickson who plays another robot in the play said, “there are multiple messages in the play. I think there’s the cautionary part of the play and the message that life goes on. I personally find the second more hopeful or uplifting. Robots killing [the] world, that’s not uplifting but the fact that life goes on is.”

“The story was really involved,” said first year Lindsay Lavenhar. “You could really connect to it. It was possible and it was funny; it was serious but it was funny. It was really long but it was really good. Definitely worth seeing if you like theater.”

When asked about the play, Tim Hanna replied in an email, “I feel that this production is going very well; the audiences seem responsive, people are laughing, sighing, hmmm-ing, and the like. I’m also very impressed with the level of professionalism in the actors and stage management/run crew.”

“Our director gave us a neat prep talk about how there have been six mass extinctions on earth,” said Erickson. “Six times, life has been eradicated and six times, life has reemerged. That’s the message I take from the play.”

Students are invited to watch, free of admission, Guilford’s rendition of R.U.R. this Friday night at 8pm. Tickets may be reserved prior to the show for one dollar. Non-Guilfordians have an entrance fee of five dollars. All are invited!