REVIEW: R.U.R. is a 1920’s play that resonates with modernity
“Indeed, some of the play’s concerns have only grown with time and seem more relevant now than they possibly could have when it debuted.”
Michael Silvia and Classic Theatre Guild perform an invaluable service to Capital Region Theatre by producing R.U.R., Karel Čapek’s hugely influential and successful 1920 play that has virtually disappeared. The play is chiefly remembered for introducing the word robot to the English language. (R.U.R. stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots.)
The play has a lot more to recommend it than those two syllables though, especially with the concern over the increasingly prevalent use of A.I. throughout the world. Indeed, some of the play’s concerns have only grown with time and seem more relevant now than they possibly could have when it debuted.
Silvia’s tense, serious and committed production gets off on the right foot with Domin (Amelia McCarthy) – a robot manufacturer who handles the opening office scene with grace and ease, answering questions from a lovely daughter of a president’s daughter Helena (a thoughtful and engaging Quinn Solace) and dictating orders to two different classes of robots, differentiated effectively by Bev Skoll and especially Michael Collins who returns in the second act doing exceptional work as another robot.
Helena’s sympathies and humanist impulses towards the robots confound the scientists played by Doug Gladstone (nicely splenetic in the second act), Rita Machin, Alyssa Talanker and Bill Wilday. All work together well along with James Callaghan and Rafe Epstein to convey a seriousness of purpose. Unfortunately, not much happens in the first act and the morality of creating robots is wearing.
The second act ups the ante considerably as the robots have taken over and have trapped the humans in their quarters. Immediately, there is an outside threat with rising stakes and we are invested in the fates of characters that we have come to care about.
The acting is consistent throughout and you can feel in the room how much the company feels about this play. It is in the public domain so Silvia and others have tinkered with the script, changing the sex of Domina for one. I can’t see any obvious harm done, this being my first experience with the script, but my recommendation would have been to go further.
Brian Starnes has a lot of fun with the sound design, naturally including Devo in the pre-show. The production and writing could have been friskier and added some much needed zestful spin on this Czech classic.
The 100 year-old play offers a sucker punch to the audience when it proposes that the humans are slaves to the robots. That certainly lands differently now than at its premiere.
R.U.R., presented by Classic Theater Guild, plays Thursday, 1/30 through Sunday, 2/2 (no performance Friday, 1/31) at Congregation Beth Israel Hall in Niskayuna. Tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door.
