Universal Robots Written by Mac Rogers Directed by Jordana Williams Presented by Gideon Productions The Sheen Center, NYC June 3-26, 2016 (special performances: parents’ matinee, 6/12; audio described for the visually impaired, 6/15; Asl interpreted, 6/23)
Contemporary theater is not exactly bursting at the seams with works in the science fiction genre. With a new production of Mac Rogers’ 2009 Universal Robots, Rogers and Jordana Williams, the writer and director respectively of last year's acclaimed extraterrestrial invasion play cycle The Honeycomb Trilogy, reunite to continue bucking that trend. Universal Robots uses multigeneric Czech writer Karel Čapek's influential 1920 play R.U.R., commonly translated as Rossum's Universal Robots, "as a point of departure for an original speculative drama," borrowing some situations and concepts while crafting an alternate history that differs from our own in some smaller ways (real-life Čapek's brother and writing partner Josef becomes Josephine) and some much larger ones that we won’t spoil the fun of finding out here. Though Čapek's life and corpus provide the intertextual focus, audiences will also be put in mind of the works of writers including Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, as well as of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, shades of which permeate not only the often Futurist aesthetic of the set but also the play's consideration of the means of production.
Universal Robots begins in Czechoslovakia a few years after its founding in 1918. Karel (Jorge Cordova), his sister Jo (Hanna Cheek), and his literary friends Vaclavek (Tarantino Smith) and Salda (Greg Oliver Bodine) meet every Friday in a cafe owned by Radosh (Jason Howard) to debate art, politics, and other Big Ideas. Their circle is joined on occasion by Tomas Masaryk (Sara Thigpen), the president of their "infant nation." Vaclavek criticizes Karel as a counter-revolutionary and a propagandist puppet of the President for his refusal to accept socialism as a viable option. The President, meanwhile, believes that government must be a form of Christian charity, and argues that the atheist Karel is really a Christian himself underneath it all. All of this discussion leads to a debate on the relative merits of fantastical and realistic theater, which in turns leads to a play by the Čapeks that imagines the consequences of an artistic class supported by a drudge class created by pills taken by expectant mothers.
Life -- or, artificial life -- imitates art when Helena Rossum (Brittany N.Williams), a fan of Karel’s and the daughter of a pair of scientists, appears at the cafe with a robot. The automata is pushed inside in a wooden wheelchair with a white cloth covering its head, looking like nothing so much as Hamm from Beckett’s Endgame, an appropriate echo given the emphasis in both plays on servitude and the importance of storytelling in/and memorialization. Just as, historically, Josef Čapek was responsible for R.U.R. being the first text to employ the word robot -- derived from the Czech robots, meaning forced labor or, metaphorically, drudgery in its current usage -- Rogers’ Jo lands on the term to replace Drudge, automata, or creature. Karel advocates to the end for depersonalizing language, including a ban on first-person or gendered pronouns, in order to maintain the distinction between the robots and humans, and it is interesting to note that it works for the audience, too, at least until it doesn't.
We learn that Helen's father is dead, and her mother, a driven, pure scientist who goes simply by Rossum (Tandy Cronyn) is working on continuously improving these robots (which are what we would probably call androids) and needs funding, but wants it to be from the “right” people. With the President’s approval, Peroutka (Neimah Djourabchi), a scientist and friend of the Čapeks, joins Rossum’s project, and the Čapeks themselves become its ethics advisors. Unsurprisingly, ethics becomes a central concern once mass production begins. The steadily increasing learning and sensory abilities of the robots engender increasingly thorny issues that range from the interpersonal and emotional to the roles of and in labor (one short question asked about robots for pedophiles could probably support its own two-hour play), and these issues come to a head as the Nazi threat looms and they are visited by Bernard Baruch (Greg Oliver Bodine), ostensibly negotiating on behalf of Fdr and the United States government, but also there on behalf of his fellow Jews. Regarding what follows, we will say only that Rossum’s robots turn out to be too much of a success.
Over the course of Universal Robots, these developments cause Karel and Jo to grow apart, and Jo becomes the true ethical voice as some of the robots move towards their "finished" form. The early cafe arguments over whether violence against an Other is an unavoidable mechanism of historical change (Masaryk's government massacred its opponents, but Masaryk knows that Vaclavek's socialist revolution would begin with the same tactics) find parallels in the play’s late stages. Soldiers and how they are used and discarded form a set of parallels both with our historical present (extending to Ptsd) and with the play’s other laborers. At least some of these connections would suggest that certain aspects of history are cyclical, and the play introduces both the idea that the inventors, the "brilliant freaks," are the ones who truly change history, not politicians or playwrights, and the idea that the most dangerous person is just such a dreamer when he or she is possessed of the power to realize his or her dream.
The gender-blind casting of Masaryk creates in her conflict with Rossum an extra textual effect of two powerful women each fighting for such a dream, and both are excellent at projecting strength and purpose under tremendous burdens. Jo is the heart of the play in more than one sense, and Hanna Cheek turns in a subtle, nuanced, and affecting performance in the role. Jason Howard, in addition to playing the steady, admiring Radosh, forges a similarly impressive, physically detailed, and notably evolving performance as the robot Radius. Jorge Cordova creates a charismatic Karel who loves his art, his family, and his country equally; his fellow intellectuals; Nikki Andrews-Ojo's imposing robot, Sulla; and the rest of the coterie of robots are likewise well-played.
Universal Robots combines allegory, allusion, humor, and propulsive storytelling to fashion a sweeping, almost Shakespearean sci-fi experience. Give your robot avatar the day off and go see this production for yourself. - Leah Richards & John Ziegler
Photo credit by Deborah Alexander
Dr. Richards is an English professor in NYC, and spends her free time raising three cats and smashing the patriarchy.
When not writing reviews, Dr. Ziegler spends a lot of his time being an Assistant Professor of English in NYC and playing guitar in a death metal band.
Contemporary theater is not exactly bursting at the seams with works in the science fiction genre. With a new production of Mac Rogers’ 2009 Universal Robots, Rogers and Jordana Williams, the writer and director respectively of last year's acclaimed extraterrestrial invasion play cycle The Honeycomb Trilogy, reunite to continue bucking that trend. Universal Robots uses multigeneric Czech writer Karel Čapek's influential 1920 play R.U.R., commonly translated as Rossum's Universal Robots, "as a point of departure for an original speculative drama," borrowing some situations and concepts while crafting an alternate history that differs from our own in some smaller ways (real-life Čapek's brother and writing partner Josef becomes Josephine) and some much larger ones that we won’t spoil the fun of finding out here. Though Čapek's life and corpus provide the intertextual focus, audiences will also be put in mind of the works of writers including Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, as well as of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, shades of which permeate not only the often Futurist aesthetic of the set but also the play's consideration of the means of production.
Universal Robots begins in Czechoslovakia a few years after its founding in 1918. Karel (Jorge Cordova), his sister Jo (Hanna Cheek), and his literary friends Vaclavek (Tarantino Smith) and Salda (Greg Oliver Bodine) meet every Friday in a cafe owned by Radosh (Jason Howard) to debate art, politics, and other Big Ideas. Their circle is joined on occasion by Tomas Masaryk (Sara Thigpen), the president of their "infant nation." Vaclavek criticizes Karel as a counter-revolutionary and a propagandist puppet of the President for his refusal to accept socialism as a viable option. The President, meanwhile, believes that government must be a form of Christian charity, and argues that the atheist Karel is really a Christian himself underneath it all. All of this discussion leads to a debate on the relative merits of fantastical and realistic theater, which in turns leads to a play by the Čapeks that imagines the consequences of an artistic class supported by a drudge class created by pills taken by expectant mothers.
Life -- or, artificial life -- imitates art when Helena Rossum (Brittany N.Williams), a fan of Karel’s and the daughter of a pair of scientists, appears at the cafe with a robot. The automata is pushed inside in a wooden wheelchair with a white cloth covering its head, looking like nothing so much as Hamm from Beckett’s Endgame, an appropriate echo given the emphasis in both plays on servitude and the importance of storytelling in/and memorialization. Just as, historically, Josef Čapek was responsible for R.U.R. being the first text to employ the word robot -- derived from the Czech robots, meaning forced labor or, metaphorically, drudgery in its current usage -- Rogers’ Jo lands on the term to replace Drudge, automata, or creature. Karel advocates to the end for depersonalizing language, including a ban on first-person or gendered pronouns, in order to maintain the distinction between the robots and humans, and it is interesting to note that it works for the audience, too, at least until it doesn't.
We learn that Helen's father is dead, and her mother, a driven, pure scientist who goes simply by Rossum (Tandy Cronyn) is working on continuously improving these robots (which are what we would probably call androids) and needs funding, but wants it to be from the “right” people. With the President’s approval, Peroutka (Neimah Djourabchi), a scientist and friend of the Čapeks, joins Rossum’s project, and the Čapeks themselves become its ethics advisors. Unsurprisingly, ethics becomes a central concern once mass production begins. The steadily increasing learning and sensory abilities of the robots engender increasingly thorny issues that range from the interpersonal and emotional to the roles of and in labor (one short question asked about robots for pedophiles could probably support its own two-hour play), and these issues come to a head as the Nazi threat looms and they are visited by Bernard Baruch (Greg Oliver Bodine), ostensibly negotiating on behalf of Fdr and the United States government, but also there on behalf of his fellow Jews. Regarding what follows, we will say only that Rossum’s robots turn out to be too much of a success.
Over the course of Universal Robots, these developments cause Karel and Jo to grow apart, and Jo becomes the true ethical voice as some of the robots move towards their "finished" form. The early cafe arguments over whether violence against an Other is an unavoidable mechanism of historical change (Masaryk's government massacred its opponents, but Masaryk knows that Vaclavek's socialist revolution would begin with the same tactics) find parallels in the play’s late stages. Soldiers and how they are used and discarded form a set of parallels both with our historical present (extending to Ptsd) and with the play’s other laborers. At least some of these connections would suggest that certain aspects of history are cyclical, and the play introduces both the idea that the inventors, the "brilliant freaks," are the ones who truly change history, not politicians or playwrights, and the idea that the most dangerous person is just such a dreamer when he or she is possessed of the power to realize his or her dream.
The gender-blind casting of Masaryk creates in her conflict with Rossum an extra textual effect of two powerful women each fighting for such a dream, and both are excellent at projecting strength and purpose under tremendous burdens. Jo is the heart of the play in more than one sense, and Hanna Cheek turns in a subtle, nuanced, and affecting performance in the role. Jason Howard, in addition to playing the steady, admiring Radosh, forges a similarly impressive, physically detailed, and notably evolving performance as the robot Radius. Jorge Cordova creates a charismatic Karel who loves his art, his family, and his country equally; his fellow intellectuals; Nikki Andrews-Ojo's imposing robot, Sulla; and the rest of the coterie of robots are likewise well-played.
Universal Robots combines allegory, allusion, humor, and propulsive storytelling to fashion a sweeping, almost Shakespearean sci-fi experience. Give your robot avatar the day off and go see this production for yourself. - Leah Richards & John Ziegler
Photo credit by Deborah Alexander
Dr. Richards is an English professor in NYC, and spends her free time raising three cats and smashing the patriarchy.
When not writing reviews, Dr. Ziegler spends a lot of his time being an Assistant Professor of English in NYC and playing guitar in a death metal band.
- 6/13/2016
- by Leah Richards
- www.culturecatch.com
Robots are all the rage right now, with multiple television shows exploring a near-future in which mechanical men and women are indistinguishable from flesh and blood human beings. Personally, as a long-time lover of all things robotic -- thank you, Isaac Asimov! -- I think the subject is still ripe for exploration, since robots are not yet as ubiquitous as vampires or zombies. So the premise of Uncanny still holds appeal for me: For ten years, inventor David Kressen has lived in seclusion with his inventions, including Adam, a robot with incredible lifelike human qualities. When reporter Joy Andrews is given access to their unconventional facility, she is alternately repelled and attracted to the scientist and his creation. But as Adam exhibits emergent behavior of...
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- 10/29/2015
- Screen Anarchy
I’m back with the second article in my ongoing series about robots, supercomputers, and cyborgs. In the first article, 14 Awesome Movie Robots You’ve Forgotten, with a nod toward Isaac Asimov and his Three Laws of Robotics, I set up a few laws (which I decided to give the mantle of ‘Tim’s Laws’) to limit the scope of the article (which let’s be honest, could spiral out of control) while still keeping with the theme of robots presented across the length and breadth of scripted science fiction. With this latest article, I need to establish a new set of laws based on those wonderful, mechanical television robots. Tim’s Laws for this article are as follows:
I’m only factoring in robots, no cyborgs, such as the Daleks in Doctor Who – that is a separate article. The robots here are from television history, no movies – that is also a separate article.
I’m only factoring in robots, no cyborgs, such as the Daleks in Doctor Who – that is a separate article. The robots here are from television history, no movies – that is also a separate article.
- 9/12/2012
- by Tim Rich
- Obsessed with Film
Robots are back at the box office! Since “Real Steel” is making the box office rounds, let’s take a small retrospective into the subgenre of sci-fi that always popular with audiences, robot movies. These movies aren’t in any particular order; the only requirement is that they have a robot in them. “I, Robot”: The 2004 Will Smith film probably upset some Isaac Asimov fans, but the film was a fun romp, if you will, into the world of the future where robots are now the norm for humanity, but they are also the bane of the humans who fear the imminent uprising of sentient robots. The main robot character, Sonny...
- 10/15/2011
- by monique
- ShockYa
Henry Hobson is the chosen director of the upcoming adaptation of the classic 1954 Isaac Asimov novel, "Caves of Steel."
"Caves of Steel" is a murder mystery set a thousand years in the future on an overpopulated earth, where robots are regarded with fear and suspicion. Police detective Elijah Bailey is forced to work with the humaniform (he looks like a person) robot Daneel Olivaw to solve the murder of a rich "Spacer," a human who has migrated to another planet, where everything is beautiful and hundreds of robots provide humans with every need and do all the work while the people lay around in mansions and get massages and drink mimosas.
Asimov was a master of the detective story, and his "Caves of Steel" series lays out the possibility of two possible sequels to the film: "The Naked Sun," which is set on another robot-and-human planet and involves a gorgeous woman and a murdered,...
"Caves of Steel" is a murder mystery set a thousand years in the future on an overpopulated earth, where robots are regarded with fear and suspicion. Police detective Elijah Bailey is forced to work with the humaniform (he looks like a person) robot Daneel Olivaw to solve the murder of a rich "Spacer," a human who has migrated to another planet, where everything is beautiful and hundreds of robots provide humans with every need and do all the work while the people lay around in mansions and get massages and drink mimosas.
Asimov was a master of the detective story, and his "Caves of Steel" series lays out the possibility of two possible sequels to the film: "The Naked Sun," which is set on another robot-and-human planet and involves a gorgeous woman and a murdered,...
- 10/13/2011
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
I’m not sure when exactly my 2-year-old daughter fell in love with robots. Maybe it was one of the thousand times when her dad has said, “Hey little girl, check out this cool robot! Don’t you love them?”
Traditional gender roles tell us, of course, that little girls like princesses and little boys are the ones who like robots, but I don’t see why that has to be so. My daughter enjoys wearing her pair of fairy wings, and her favorite book is Pinkalicious, but she also adores this boxy, tin-toy Lilliput robot that staggers forward awkwardly when you wind it up.
Traditional gender roles tell us, of course, that little girls like princesses and little boys are the ones who like robots, but I don’t see why that has to be so. My daughter enjoys wearing her pair of fairy wings, and her favorite book is Pinkalicious, but she also adores this boxy, tin-toy Lilliput robot that staggers forward awkwardly when you wind it up.
- 10/7/2011
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW.com - PopWatch
A few years ago, 20th Century Fox released a cinematic adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. The film, which starred Will Smith, went on to make over $320 million in the global box office. With that in mind, it’s almost surprising that it’s taken Fox seven years to go back to the Asimov well – but that’s where they’re headed now, with an announcement that the studio is moving ahead with an adaptation of the scribe’s novel The Caves of Steel. Based on the author’s 1954 novel, the film is set 1,000 years in the future. Earth is over-populated, and everyone has robot-phobia and lives in these giant metal complexes (hence the title) to deal with the lack of space. Robots are banned on the planet, but are still used for doing...
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- 9/23/2011
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
Twentieth Century Fox plans to adapt the Isaac Asimov’s science fiction mystery novel “The Caves of Steel” on to the big screen. The studio has hired director Henry Hobson to helm the project. It will be Hobson’s directorial debut. His previous work mainly involved designing main and end titles for several films including “The Help,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Hangover Part II,” and “Sherlock Holmes.” John A. Scott III is brought to the project as the adaptive screenwriter. Here is the overview of the novel: In the future you will walk down the crowded streets of New York City not knowing if the bodies brushing past you are humans or androids. With tensions already mounting between humans and robots, the murder of a Spacer must be handled in a politically-correct fashion so Detective Elijah Baley is assigned a robot partner. “The Caves of Steel” is the first novel in...
- 9/23/2011
- LRMonline.com
20th Century Fox is planning to adapt another Isaac Asimov novel. Deadline reports that Henry Hobson will direct The Caves of Steel with a script from John Scott 3. Published in 1954, the book tells a sci-fi detective story set roughly 3,000 years in the future. In it, a police detective, Elijah Bailey, joins forces with a robot, R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve a murder case of a "Spacer" Ambassador before it becomes an intergalactic incident. In the world of the book, Spacers are those who have chosen to leave the Earth for colonies on new worlds, creating a rift between those who remain on the overpopulated Earth. Bailey and Olivaw (or elements thereof) reappear in subsequent Asimov stories, including The Naked Sun , The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire ....
- 9/22/2011
- Comingsoon.net
Finally I managed to get through a book in a day. Thank you Jeebus Isaac Asimov. I can't really say that I am a "fan" of Asimov, at least in the same sense that I can say I am a fan of Stephen King; until this book, I had only read two of his works, I, Robot and Solar System. I have another one of his to read later, Nightfall, and while I guess technically I should have read that one first, I couldn't turn down a good robot story. I love old school science fiction (The Caves of Steel was written in 1954) for one reason, and that is its predictions for the future that constantly turn into reality. I also love reading older stories like this to find comparisons in later works of fiction, both in film and literature. At 209 pages The Caves of Steel is not a wordy book,...
- 12/21/2009
- by Dustin Rowles
Underneath the computer-generated exterior of Astro Boy there’s heart and humor that kids will enjoy and parents will appreciate.
Based on the classic Japanese manga of the 60’s, Summit Entertainment has revived the science fiction series for an origin story and a new adventure. Fair warning, however, diehard fans of the originals may be disappointed in the sugary sweet re-imagining.
In the floating haven of Metro City, scientists have discovered two infinite, renewable sources of positive and negative energy capable of restoring life to an abandoned Earth. It’s not long before the megalomaniac leader (voiced by Donald Sutherland) orders the negative core into a “Peacekeeper” robot that wreaks havoc on the lab and vaporizes Toby, the bright son of Dr. Tenma (a more restrained Nicolas Cage).
Tenma builds a robot in his son’s image and fills it with Toby’s memories, creating a powerful version of the...
Based on the classic Japanese manga of the 60’s, Summit Entertainment has revived the science fiction series for an origin story and a new adventure. Fair warning, however, diehard fans of the originals may be disappointed in the sugary sweet re-imagining.
In the floating haven of Metro City, scientists have discovered two infinite, renewable sources of positive and negative energy capable of restoring life to an abandoned Earth. It’s not long before the megalomaniac leader (voiced by Donald Sutherland) orders the negative core into a “Peacekeeper” robot that wreaks havoc on the lab and vaporizes Toby, the bright son of Dr. Tenma (a more restrained Nicolas Cage).
Tenma builds a robot in his son’s image and fills it with Toby’s memories, creating a powerful version of the...
- 10/24/2009
- by Jeff Leins
- newsinfilm.com
Kotaku is running an interesting series on Robots in Gaming this week, and one of the posts dealt with the three laws governing artificial intelligence, as laid out by Isaac Asimov in his series of very nerdy but very enjoyable books. They are as follows:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The most prolific AI designers of our time are, of course, video game designers, so Kotaku asked a few of them if they had their own laws for creating video game AI. My favorite answer came from Todd Howard of Bethesda Studios:
“I’ll...
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The most prolific AI designers of our time are, of course, video game designers, so Kotaku asked a few of them if they had their own laws for creating video game AI. My favorite answer came from Todd Howard of Bethesda Studios:
“I’ll...
- 5/28/2009
- by Russ Frushtick
- MTV Multiplayer
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