R.U.R. | Page 5

why are you
play-acting like this?
Sulla: I am a robot.
Helena: No, no, you're lying! Oh, I'm sorry, Sulla, I realise... I realise they force you to do
it just to make their products look good. Sulla, you're a living girl just like I am - admit it.
Domin: Sorry Miss Glory. I'm afraid Sulla really is a robot.
Helena: You're lying!
Domin: (stands erect) What's that? - (rings) If you'll allow me, it seems I'll have to
convince you.
(enter Marius)
Domin: Marius, take Sulla down to the dissection room to have her opened up. Quickly!
Helena: Where?
Domin: The dissection room. Once they've cut her open you can come down and have a
look.
Helena: I'm not going there!
Domin: If you'll forgive me, you did say something about lying.
Helena: You're going to have her killed?
Domin: You don't kill a machine.
Helena: (arms around Sulla) Don't worry, Sulla, I won't let them take you. Do they
always treat you like this? You shouldn't put up with it, do you hear, you shouldn't put up
with it.
Sulla: I am a robot.
Helena: I don't care what you are. Robots are people just as good as we are. Sulla, would
you really let them cut you open.
Sulla: Yes.
Helena: And aren't you afraid of dying?

Sulla: I do not understand dying, Miss Glory.
Helena: Do you know what would happen to you then?
Sulla: Yes, I would cease to move.
Helena: This is terrible!
Domin: Marius, tell the lady what you are.
Marius: Robot, Marius.
Domin: And would you take Sulla down to the dissection room?
Marius: Yes.
Domin: Would you not feel any pity for her?
Marius: I do not understand pity.
Domin: What would happen to her.
Marius: She would cease to move. She would be put on the scrap heap.
Domin: That's what death is, Marius. Are you afraid of death.
Marius: No.
Domin: There, Miss Glory, you see? Robots don't cling to life. There's no way they could
do. They've got no sense of pleasure. They're less than the grass.
Helena: Oh stop it! Send them out of here, at least!
Domin: Marius, Sulla, you can go now.
(Sulla and Marius exeunt)
Helena: They're horrible. This is vile, what you're doing here.
Domin: What's vile about it?
Helena: I don't know. Why... why did you give her the name 'Sulla'?
Domin: Don't you like that name?
Helena: It's a man's name. Sulla was a Roman general.
Domin: Was he? We thought Marius and Sulla were lovers.
Helena: No, Marius and Sulla were generals who fought against each other in... oh I

forget when.
Domin: Come over to the window. What do you see?
Helena: Bricklayers.
Domin: They're robots. All the workers here are robots. And down here; what do you see
there?
Helena: Some kind of office.
Domin: That's the accounts department. And in the...
Helena:... lots of office workers.
Domin: They're all robots. All our office staff are robots. Over there there's the factory...
(just then, factory whistles and sirens sound)
Domin: Lunchtime. The robots don't know when they're supposed to stop working. At
two o'clock I'll show you the mixers.
Helena: What mixers?
Domin: (drily) For mixing the dough. Each one of them can mix the material for a
thousand robots at a time. Then there are the vats of liver and brain and so on. The bone
factory. Then I'll show you the spinning-mill.
Helena: What spinning-mill?
Domin: Where we make the nerve fibres and the veins. And the intestine mill, where
kilometers of tubing run through at a time. Then there's the assembly room where all
these things are put together, it's just like making a car really. Each worker contributes
just his own part of the production which automatically goes on to the next worker, then
to the third and on and on. It's all fascinating to watch. After that they go to the drying
room and into storage where the newly made robots work.
Helena: You mean you make them start work as soon as they're made?
Domin: Well really, it's more like working in the way a new piece of furniture works.
They need to get used to the idea that they exist. There's something on the inside of them
that needs to grow or something. And there are lots of new things on the inside that just
aren't there until this time. You see, we need to leave a little space for natural
development. And in the meantime the products go through their apprenticeship.
Helena: What does that involve?
Domin: Much the same as going to school for a person. They learn how to speak, write
and do arithmetic, as they've got amazing memories. If you read a twenty-volume

encyclopedia to them