Robots have been threatening to take over the world—which is to say that people have felt threatened by the possibility of a robot takeover—since at least 1921, when Czech playwright Karel Čapek coined the term “robot” for his play R.U.R. In Čapek’s scenario, manufactured workers rise up in successful revolt against their creator/masters, killing off pretty much the entire human species.
The one incontrovertible innovation is Walter, Marjorie’s robotic companion. He doesn’t look like a robot. To all outward appearances he’s a 30ish guy with a solicitous affect, willing to engage Marjorie on the subject of old movies and listen to her stories about the past. But in fact he’s been fabricated to resemble Marjorie’s dead husband, Walter, at the moment in his life when he was most vivid to her. What’s more, he’s still a work in progress: a learning robot whose memory adapts to conversational input, on the theory that it will give him a more authentically human—not to say Walter-like—texture.
Through 2/28: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM, Tue 7:30 PM Writers Theatre, Books on Vernon 664 Vernon, Glencoe 847-242-6000writerstheatre.org $65-$70
