Rossum's Universal Robots – Fisher Center At Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson

About this event

The production is presented by Bard College Theater & Performance Program and directed by Dara Malina. The staging uses Claudia Novack's translation of Karel Capek's play. The event presents the play as a contemporary examination of the relationship between technological development and human society. The production concept centers on an imagined future in which robots occupy nearly every area of human life, including domestic work, labor, agriculture, transportation, and warfare. The description connects Capek's 1920 vision with the contemporary rise of artificial intelligence and presents the play as an analysis and warning. Design credits are Aoshuang Zhang, set design; Karen Boyer, costume design; Daisy Long, lighting design; and Evdoxia Ragkou, sound design. The staging invites comparison between the arrival of potentially dangerous technology in 1920s Europe and present-day technological change.