R.U.R.

R.U.R. (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”) by Karel Çapek (1921). An apocalyptic vision of a revolution by robots which satirizes the contemporary world. First produced in South Africa by the Johannesburg Reps in 1936. (Du Toit , 1988, suggests the three successful performances by the Reps were staged in 1928). It was translated into Afrikaans by M.C. Botha and produced by Volksteater in 1939, directed by Napier de Bruyn. (He repeated it with acclaim for K.A.T. in Cape Town in 1947.) ***The production had an amusing side-effect in South Africa: the term “robot” (pronounced “row-bot”) was applied to the new automated traffic lights that had just made their appearance, and rapidly became - and has remained - the standard term for traffic lights in South African English as well as Afrikaans and other indigenous languages.

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