There’s a lot to unpack in Karel Capek’s 1921 stageplay, Rossum’s Universal Robots, now trundling the stage at Las Cruces Community Theatre. As a longtime proponent of this play, I was both thrilled that one of our local theatre troupes would be taking on such a fabled production, and understandably wary of what might transpire when they did so.
I would first like to applaud the director, the crew, and the cast of Rossum’s Universal Robots, for taking the chance. For those of us in the opening-night audience who stuck it out after intermission, it was an entertaining, if somewhat perplexing experience. I do have to wonder, however, if perhaps instead of concentrating so resolutely on the “sci-fi” aspects of the production, a little more attention should have been paid to the milieu of the conception itself.
At the time this play was written, the stage was a very different place. Stage actors played not only to each other, but to the audience. They hammered every revelation home, with a nod and a wink. Many of their monologues were supercilious at best, and tedious at worst. They carried themselves broadly and exclaimed loudly, while spouting euphuistic words like supercilious, and euphuistic. It’s just the way things were done then. The subtleties of method acting were not yet necessary ingredients for audience plausibility.
Which makes most of what was staged in 1920 – the year the play was written – what we would today refer to as melodrama. This play is a melodrama; unfortunately, only a few of the cast members got the memo. Those who did, present their characters broadly and unabashedly. They are a joy to behold. Those who did not, however, come across as overly serious and somewhat lost in the dialog which, let’s be honest, said without any irony whatsoever, sounds awkward and affected.
Which is not to say that any of this is a problem of the 105-year-old play. Even Shakespeare can sound clumsy in a modern mouth. It just takes an understanding of the material and, perhaps, a more knowledgeable and experienced director to pull it off adroitly. For a directorial debut, it may have been too prodigious a bite, though Jason Wyatt must once again be commended for attempting the challenge. It’s clear he loves this play, and I believe he will return to again and again. With luck, I will be around to see his 10- or 20-year reprisal. It will, I expect, be brilliant.
In the meantime, let’s just say that this production of Rossum’s Universal Robots is not for everybody. Really, what 20th century Czechoslovakian literature is? However, for those who approach it as what it is – a highly prescient futuristic treatise that speaks clearly, if somewhat stentoriously, to our own time – it can be a uniquely fulfilling experience. It’s also silly, and clever, and hokey, and even charmingly, dare I say politically, incorrect, but considering the climate, both then and now, still in goose step with the times.
Let me reiterate that Rossum’s Universal Robots is definitely worth seeing, despite the ineludible impediments. As a modern production it is audacious and diverting. As history it is startlingly foresighted. And as community theatre it is no more challenging for an audience to sit through than, say, Harold Pinter, or Samuel Beckett. And finally, if you think it’s just a play about robots, you’re missing the point completely.
Rossum’s Universal Robots provides retro futuristic food for thought Friday, Saturday and Sunday through April 13, 2025, at the Las Cruces Community Theatre, 313 N. Main St., in Las Cruces. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the website at www.LCCTNM.org.
