R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is a play by Karel Čapek. Čapek was a Czech writer who produced work in many genres, including journalism, essays, plays, short stories, novels, and translations of French poetry. R.U.R. premiered in 1921 at Prague’s National Theater. It is based on a short story by Karel Čapek and his brother Josef Čapek called “The System,” which was published in 1908. Čapek categorized R.U.R. as a collective drama, but it is generally considered a work of science or speculative fiction. The original 1921 posters that advertised the play said that it took place in the year 2000, after the invention and widespread use of robots.

In R.U.R., Čapek imagines a future world where robots become the world’s workers, laboring for humans. He uses the robots’ revolt and eventual annihilation of the human race to explore what it means to be human and the purpose of human life. The working conditions of Rossum’s factory offer an opportunity to explore power dynamics created by labor. The theme of Love is central in the play—engendering powerful and healing emotions for both humans and robots.

This guide cites the 2004 Penguin Classics edition, translated into English by Claudia Novack, with an introduction by Ivan Klima.

Plot Summary

The play opens with Domin, a director of Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.), a factory that supplies the world with robots. Domin is working with his robot secretary. He takes a meeting with Helena Glory, the president’s daughter. She mistakes his secretary for a human. Domin tells her that all the factory workers are robots, and explains how the Rossums—father and son—created robots.

When Helena meets the other directors of R.U.R., she mistakes them all for robots, and tries to organize them to rally for better working conditions. Domin explains that the directors are the only humans in the factory. They discuss making the robots more human, and all of the men fall in love with Helena. At the end of the prologue, Domin proposes to Helena.

Ten years later, the directors are meeting once more. Robots have been malfunctioning and war is spreading, with robots killing humans. Domin and Helena, now married, are celebrating the anniversary of Helena’s arrival at the factory. Domin is secretly worried because they haven’t received mail in weeks.

Helena and her nurse read an old newspaper, learning that human women have become infertile. Helena talks with one of the malfunctioning robots, Radius, who professes a desire to destroy humans and rule in their place. Helena prevents him from being destroyed, seeing something human in him. He leads a widespread robot revolt, and revolutionaries surround the factory. Meanwhile, Helena burns Rossum’s original manuscript, which includes the secret of how to produce robots.

The R.U.R. directors electrify the fence and discuss the nature of the world, humanity, and robots. One of the directors balances the company’s accounts, while the others vote on whether to give the robots Rossum’s manuscript in exchange for their lives, or destroy it. A few robots die trying to break through the fence. One director, Busman, tries to buy their freedom, but accidentally electrocutes himself while flinging around a suitcase full of money. The robots successfully break through and kill all the humans, with the exception of Alquist, whom they consider robotic because of his building skills and dedication to work.

Later, the robots hold Alquist as the last living human. Alquist decides that he will try to help the robots, since he can no longer help humanity, but he lacks the ability to do so without the manuscript. The robots command him to dissect living robots in order to give them the ability to reproduce, but he refuses. After further threats, he complies, but can’t finish the vivisection.

Meanwhile, Robot Primus and Robot Helena, a robotic counterpart to the human Helena, are flirting and laughing. This reminds Alquist of humans. He confirms that both Helena and Primus would rather die than let the other be hurt, showing true humanity. He tells them to go out in the world as the new Adam and Eve, and reads from the Bible about the nature of the world.