R u r, p.1
R.U.R., page 1
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Dramatis Personae
In order of appearance:
Harry Domin, General Manager of Rossum’s Universal Robots
A handsome man of 35. Forceful, efficient and humorous at times.
Sulla, a Robotess
A pathetic figure. Young, pretty and attractive.
Marius, a Robot
A young Robot, superior to the general run of his kind. Dressed in modern clothes.
Helena Glory
A vital, sympathetic, handsome girl of 21.
Dr. Gall, head of the Physiological and Experimental Department of R.U.R.
A tall, distinguished scientist of 50.
Mr. Fabry, Engineer General, Technical Controller of R.U.R.
A forceful, competent engineer of 40.
Dr. Hallemeier, head of the Institute for Psychological Training of Robots
An impressive man of 40. Bald head and beard.
Mr. Alquist, Architect, head of the Works Department of R.U.R.
A stout, kindly old man of 60.
Consul Busman, General Manager of R.U.R.
Nana
A tall, acidulous woman of 40.
Radius, a Robot
A tall, forceful Robot.
Helena, a Robotess
A radiant young woman of 20.
Primus, a Robot
A good-looking young Robot.
A Servant
First Robot
Second Robot
Third Robot
Note
All the Robots wear expressionless faces and move with absolute mechanical precision, with the exception of Sulla, Helena and Primus, who convey a touch of humanity.
R.U.R.
Or, Rossum’s Universal Robots
Act I
Scene: Central office of the factory of Rossum’s Universal Robots. Entrance R. down Right. The windows on the back wall look out on the endless roads of factory buildings. Door L. down Left. On the Left wall large maps showing steamship and railroad routes. On the Right wall are fastened printed placards. (“Robots cheapest Labor,” etc.) In contrast to these wall fittings, the floor is covered with splendid Turkish carpet, a couch R. C. A book shelf containing bottles of wine and spirits, instead of books.
Domin is sitting at his desk at Left, dictating. Sulla is at the typewriter upstage against the wall. There is a leather couch with arms Right Center. At the extreme Right an armchair. At extreme Left a chair. There is also a chair in front of Domin’s desk. Two green cabinets across the upstage corners of the room complete the furniture. Domin’s desk is placed up and down stage facing Right.
Seen through the windows which run to the heights of the room are rows of factory chimneys, telegraph poles and wires. There is a general passageway or hallway upstage at the Right Center which leads to the warehouse. The Robots are brought into the office through this entrance.
Domin Dictating. Ready?
Sulla Yes.
Domin To E. M. McVicker & Co., Southampton, England. “We undertake no guarantee for goods damaged in transit. As soon as the consignment was taken on board we drew your captain’s attention to the fact that the vessel was unsuitable for the transportation of Robots; and we are therefore not responsible for spoiled freight. We beg to remain, for Rossum’s Universal Robots, yours truly.” Sulla types the lines. Ready?
Sulla Yes.
Domin Another letter. To the E. B. Huysen Agency, New York, USA “We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for five thousand Robots. As you are sending your own vessel, please dispatch as cargo equal quantities of soft and hard coal for R.U.R., the same to be credited as part payment buzzer of the amount due us.” Answering phone. Hello! This is the central office. Yes, certainly. Well, send them a wire. Good. Rises. “We beg to remain, for Rossum’s Universal Robots, yours very truly.” Ready?
Sulla Yes.
Domin Answering small portable phone. Hello! Yes. No. All right. Standing back of desk, punching plug machine and buttons. Another letter. Freidrichswerks, Hamburg, Germany. “We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots.” Enter Marius R. Well, what is it?
Marius There’s a lady, sir, asking to see you.
Domin A lady? Who is she?
Marius I don’t know, sir. She brings this card of introduction.
Domin Reading card. Ah, from President Glory. Ask her to come in—To Sulla. Crossing up to her desk, then back to his own. Where did I leave off?
Sulla “We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots.”
Domin Fifteen thousand. Fifteen thousand.
Marius At door R. Please step this way.
Enter Helena. Exit Marius R.
Helena Crossing to desk. How do you do?
Domin How do you do? What can I do for you?
Helena You are Mr. Domin, the General Manager?
Domin I am.
Helena I have come—
Domin With President Glory’s card. That is quite sufficient.
Helena President Glory is my father. I am Helena Glory.
Domin Please sit down. Sulla, you may go. Exit Sulla L. Sitting down L. of desk. How can I be of service to you, Miss Glory?
Helena I have come—Sits R. of desk.
Domin To have a look at our famous works where people are manufactured. Like all visitors. Well, there is no objection.
Helena I thought it was forbidden to—
Domin To enter the factory? Yes, of course. Everybody comes here with someone’s visiting card, Miss Glory.
Helena And you show them—
Domin Only certain things. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret process.
Helena If you only knew how enormously that—
Domin Interests you. Europe’s talking about nothing else.
Helena Indignantly turning front. Why don’t you let me finish speaking?
Domin Drier. I beg your pardon. Did you want to say something different?
Helena I only wanted to ask—
Domin Whether I could make a special exception in your case and show you our factory. Why, certainly, Miss Glory.
Helena How do you know I wanted to say that?
Domin They all do. But we shall consider it a special honor to show you more than we do the rest.
Helena Thank you.
Domin Standing. But you must agree not to divulge the least—
Helena Standing and giving him her hand. My word of honor.
Domin Thank you. Looking at her hand. Won’t you raise your veil?
Helena Of course. You want to see whether I’m a spy or not—I beg your pardon.
Domin Leaning forward. What is it?
Helena Would you mind releasing my hand?
Domin Releasing it. Oh, I beg your pardon.
Helena Raising veil. How cautious you have to be here, don’t you?
Domin Observing her with deep interest. Why, yes. Hm—of course—We—that is—
Helena But what is it? What’s the matter?
Domin I’m remarkably pleased. Did you have a pleasant crossing?
Helena Yes.
Domin No difficulty?
Domin What I mean to say is—you’re so young.
Helena May we go straight into the factory?
Domin Yes. Twenty-two, I think.
Helena Twenty-two what?
Domin Years.
Helena Twenty-one. Why do you want to know?
Domin Well, because—as—Sits on desk nearer her. You will make a long stay, won’t you?
Helena (Backing away. R.) That depends on how much of the factory you show me.
Domin Rises; crosses to her. Oh, hang the factory. Oh, no, no, you shall see everything, Miss Glory. Indeed you shall. Won’t you sit down? Takes her to couch R. C. She sits. Offers her cigarette from case at end of sofa. She refuses.
Helena Thank you.
Domin But first would you like to hear the story of the invention?
Helena Yes, indeed.
Domin Crosses to L. C. near desk. It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great physiologist, who was then quite a young scientist, took himself to the distant island for the purpose of studying the ocean fauna. She is amused. On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like living matter although its chemical composition was different. That was in the year 1932, exactly four hundred and forty years after the discovery of America. Whew—
Helena Do you know that by heart?
Domin Takes flowers from desk to her. Yes. You see, physiology is not in my line. Shall I go on?
Helena Smelling flowers. Yes, please.
Domin Center. And then, Miss Glory, Old Rossum wrote the following among his chemical experiments: “Nature has found only one method of organizing living matter. There is, however, another method, more simple, flexible and rapid which has not yet occurred to Nature at all. This second process by which life can be developed was discovered by me today.” Now imagine him, Miss Glory, writing those wonderful words over some colloidal mess that a dog wouldn’t look at. Imagine him sitting over a test tube and thinking how the whole tree of life would grow from him, how all animals would proceed from it, beginning with some sort of a beetle and ending with a man. A man of different substance from us. Miss Glory, that was a tremendous moment. Gets box of candy from desk and passes it to her.
Helena Well—
Domin As she speaks his portable phone lights up and he answers. Well—Hello!—Yes—no, I’m in conference. Don’t disturb me.
Helena Well?
Domin Smile. Now, the thing was how to get the life out of the test tubes, and hasten development and form organs, bones and nerves, and so on, and find such substances as catalytics, enzymes, hormones in short—you understand?
Helena Not much, I’m afraid.
Domin Never mind. Leans over couch and fixes cushion for her back. There! You see with the help of his tinctures he could make whatever he wanted. He could have produced a Medusa with the brain of Socrates or a worm fifty yards long—She laughs. He does also; leans closer on couch, then straightens up again—but being without a grain of humor, he took into his head to make a vertebrate or perhaps a man. This artificial living matter of his had a raging thirst for life. It didn’t mind being sown or mixed together. That couldn’t be done with natural albumen. And that’s how he set about it.
Helena About what?
Domin About imitating Nature. First of all he tried making an artificial dog. That took him several years and resulted in a sort of stunted calf which died in a few days. I’ll show it to you in the museum. And then old Rossum started on the manufacture of man.
Helena And I’m to divulge this to nobody?
Domin To nobody in the world.
Helena What a pity that it’s to be discovered in all the school books of both Europe and America. Both laugh.
Domin Yes. But do you know what isn’t in the school books? That old Rossum was mad. Seriously, Miss Glory, you must keep this to yourself. The old crank wanted to actually make people.
Helena But you do make people.
Domin Approximately—Miss Glory. But old Rossum meant it literally. He wanted to become a sort of scientific substitute for God. He was a fearful materialist, and that’s why he did it all. His sole purpose was nothing more or less than to prove that God was no longer necessary. Crosses to end of couch. Do you know anything about anatomy?
Helena Very little.
Domin Neither do I. Well—He laughs—he then decided to manufacture everything as in the human body. I’ll show you in the museum the bungling attempt it took him ten years to produce. It was to have been a man, but it lived for three days only. Then up came young Rossum, an engineer. He was a wonderful fellow, Miss Glory. When he saw what a mess of it the old man was making he said: “It’s absurd to spend ten years making a man. If you can’t make him quicker than Nature, you might as well shut up shop.” Then he set about learning anatomy himself.
Helena There’s nothing about that in the school books?
Domin No. The school books are full of paid advertisements, and rubbish at that. What the school books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful rows. The old atheist hadn’t the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that Young Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him fritter the time away with his monstrosities while he himself started on the business from an engineer’s point of view. Old Rossum cursed him and before he died he managed to botch up two physiological horrors. Then one day they found him dead in the laboratory. And that’s his whole story.
Helena And what about the young man?
Domin Sits beside her on couch. Well, anyone who has looked into human anatomy will have seen at once that man is too complicated, and that a good engineer could make him more simply. So young Rossum began to overhaul anatomy to see what could be left out or simplified. In short—But this isn’t boring you, Miss Glory?
Helena No, indeed. You’re—It’s awfully interesting.
Domin Gets closer. So young Rossum said to himself: “A man is something that feels happy, plays the piano, likes going for a walk, and, in fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are really unnecessary.”
Helena Oh.
Domin That are unnecessary when he wants—Takes her hand—let us say, to weave or count. Do you play the piano?
Helena Yes.
Domin That’s good. Kisses her hand. She lowers her head. Oh, I beg your pardon! Rises. But a working machine must not play the piano, must not feel happy, must not do a whole lot of other things. A gasoline motor must not have tassels or ornaments, Miss Glory. And to manufacture artificial workers is the same thing as the manufacture of a gasoline motor. She is not interested. The process must be the simplest, and the product the best from a practical point of view. Sits beside her again. What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?
Helena Absently. What? Looks at him.
Domin What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?
Helena Pulling herself together. Oh! Perhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking.
Domin No. The one that is the cheapest. The one whose requirements are the smallest. Young Rossum invented a worker with the minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work. Everything that makes man more expensive. In fact he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are; they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul. Leans back.
