We are dedicating this final production in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre to the memory of our late poet, Terrance Cox, who passed in the evening of January 16, 2015. Please see this post for more information.
Directed by David Fancy
Set Design & Costume Design by David Vivian
Lighting Design by Jennifer Jimenez
Music by Steve Chan
An updated version of Karel Capek’s 1930s classic robot play.
The past and future of artificial life, complete with phasers and show tunes!
Show dates/times: February 12, 13, and 14, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Matinee performance: February 13 at 11:30 a.m.
social media: rurrobotrising.tumblr.com
on twitter: #rurrobotrising
Performed in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University
Karel Capek invented the word ‘robot’ in 1920s Czechoslovakia and the world has never been the same since. Our updated version of this Marxist robot melodrama features lots of bots and borgs, an apocalyptic vision of the future, and, of course, a theremin. Come witness the robot apocalypse!
In Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920), Karel Capek invites us into an uncertain future in which the world is overrun by mass-produced robots. Although their makers hoped these machines would free human beings from the bondage of labour, instead, the robots mimic their makers and resort to war against all humans. This play is a precursor to so much subsequent science fiction dealing with artificial intelligence—from Star Trek to Terminator, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Her. Like these later stories, the play deals with the anxieties of creating artificial life-forms, the awe in the face of robot power and possibility, and the fear of the end of human life on the planet.
In the play, Rossum’s robot factory is visited by President Glory’s daughter Helena, a robot emancipationist. She attempts to convince the other humans working at the plant that the robots deserve their own freedom. Instead, she never leaves the factory, marries into the Rossum clan, and is present when the robot genocide of humans takes place. The final humans on the planet struggle to understand what has gone wrong. At a time of increasing technologization of labour and the becoming-digital of many people’s daily lives in the Economic North, this production offers an opportunity to imagine different futures beyond the ‘mechanization of everything.’
Teachers and faculty should read this letter about group bookings and discounts.
A Primer for Robot Audiences is available for review, prepared by Lead robot author, Andrew Godin: download to print a copy. (PDF, 4.8 MB)
Media
See the video below to learn more about the show!
see the article in Niagara This Week!