Performances of R.U.R. are taking place this weekend – and this week we have Prof. Jindrich Toman providing background on the writer Karel Čapek and his influences.
Thu Oct 20, noon
In-person at Library East Reading Room, or register for Zoom webinar:
 Golems, Robots, Workers: Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. and Its Contexts
Invited talk: Jindrich Toman (University of Michigan)
The talk first shows that many themes of R.U.R. were present already in a short story “The System” that Karel Capek wrote with his brother Josef in 1908. Obviously, by 1920 many things have changed and so R.U.R. shows an interesting metamorphosis of characters and motifs that point beyond the 1908 story, One of the new factors is the popularity of artificial creatures, including another Prague product—the Golem, best known from Paul Wegener’s Golem film of 1920. Differences and convergences of R.U.R. and Wegener’s film will be discussed in an attempt to sketch the context provided by the period and to show Capek’s originality. |
Thu-Sat Oct 20-22, 7:30PM
In-person at McArdle Theatre (Walker Hall), or watch livestream
 Tech Theatre Company performance: R.U.R.
Tickets : $15 / youth $5 / MTU students free |