New-York tribune., 1922-10-10
'sR. Y. r. Is Tonic Expert.
cnce With The Theaier Guild
When Il Is, as Usual. i'm
Fantastic Humor

-
iating adventures among the portents
and symbols at the Garrick should be-
gin with definitions.
Inc name of the play is ar. u. r.
Whicn, translated from the Czech.
siovakian, means "Rossum's Universal
Robots A robot pronounced Rub
bitt) is a mechanical being, adduced
srom the laboratories and machine
shops Of a Frankenstein family named
Rossum, which endowed its product
with all the human attributes save a
soul and the compliments thereof.
Inc robots, after some years of per-
fecting experiments became the most
modern of conveniences. Millions of
them did the chores of the world, from
stenography to coal-mining, and in so
doing lifted their voices in none of
labor's .sorrowful songs.
But they were pallid and sullen and
there was no beauty in their COMPOST
ton. Hopeless, angular. patterned,
non-union,. sexless and without 10y,
they dug the sewers, made the beds
and earned the dividends for their
owners. Triumph OF modern engineer
ing. they were masterpieces of physi-
cal efficiency, having no appendices,
Tor instance, and minimum amount
of smaller intestines. A robot was
never known to smile.
unit, and factories where tons of kid
neys, miles and miles of nerves and
crates upon crates Of knuckles, big
toes and vertebr@ were turned out
each day. AS the play begins the
Rossum corporation is little con-
temptuous Of God, for it ,s able to
produce robot-workmen at f. O. b. $3.50
head, fully dressed. It's general
manager (Basil Sydney) has hopes
that ere long the few privileged human
beings who remain upon the planet will
be nourished without trouble to them
selves. by mechanical servitors, strong,
willing and supine.
Somewhere in the second act Of "R.
U. R.," these sinister robot creatures,
influenced and inebriated by the viru-
lent hootch of civilization, take 1t into
their heads to revolt. They have ac-
quired, through propinauity and the
help Of a radical biologist, the hatred
irritability and selfshness of human
beings. One of the errors in their
| manufacture, 1t Is discovered, is that
| they were made universal, instead of
national. They cling together instead
| of being at one another's throats, since
they are not British, Swedish, Swiss
French or Balkan. The Rossum in
corporation hastens to change it's for
mula SO that national frontiers may
infuriate the robots against one an
| other, but it is too late. .'The papers
have been destroyed. These papers
on suspects are symbolic of The Theate1
Guilds announcement that "R. U. r.
is melodrama.
The acute situation wherein the
| i''Ai pSiHSo @AS UsSlSBeu ana dC
tackled by their manufactured monsters
is good melodrana, too, though diluted
considerably by an inevitable lequacity
Many large thoughts are expressed
lengthily in the course of this scene
though always in a footnote mood. Al
perfect picture of its kind we com.
mend to you the approach of the robotc
as they enter the drawing where
their owners shiver and are courage
ously afraid. Against ruddy back
ground they assume frightful, ominous
and picturesque postures, reminiscent
of the more radical, Bolshevistic car.
toons; and they give yo uthrill of sew
eral kinds.
"R. A. R." represents the theatel
guild again in the fantastic humor ii
which it and its alactritous audience
are so efiicacions 1t is a fine evening
for the super-playgoer, and it give.
him cause to connect by its fruit,
significance such remote things as thu
/. W. w. and the Garden of Eden, ane
1T Is perfectly played by the cast
which, we hope, is published above.
sMo~fnr, nf sL ANe ~