R.U.R.

In one of the factory’s laboratories, Alquist sits at a desk, looking through books. He laments not being able to figure out the secret of Rossum’s manuscript. He mourns the loss of all the people and the stars. Staring in a mirror, he talks about being old and the last human alive. A robot servant enters and says the Central Committee of Robots is waiting. After hearing that no humans have been found, Alquist tells the robot to send in the committee. If he can’t save humans, Alquist wants to at least save the robots.

Radius and four other robots enter. They bemoan how the efforts to reproduce robots have been failures and demand that Alquist share the secret of how to make robots or they will kill him. He says they can kill him because he doesn’t know the secret. One robot identifies himself as Damon, the Ruler of the Robots. The robots claim killing all the humans was an act of becoming more human, because humans kill one another, and that robots now have souls. Alquist suggests robots mate like animals. He repeats that Rossum’s formula for producing robots was burned.

Damon suggests that Alquist experiment on live robots. Alquist says he’s too old, but Damon insists. Alquist says Damon should be the one to be dissected. They go offstage, where Damon is held down as Alquist cuts into him. Robot Helena and Robot Primus run onstage, hearing Damon’s screams. Alquist comes back onstage in his bloodstained lab coat and refuses to continue cutting into Damon, even though both Damon and Radius demand he continue to experiment.

Alquist orders everyone out and laments what his hands have done. Damon stumbles onstage, bloody, declaring he wants to live. Robot Helena comes back to help Alquist wash his hands. He refuses to call her Helena, and she leaves. Alquist is upset over his lack of progress and at the sun’s progress in rising. He hides under a black cloak on a couch.

Robots Helena and Primus enter the lab and discuss the scientific equipment. Helena spills a test tube. She looks at Alquist’s formulae, but doesn’t understand them. Primus finds the work interesting, but Helena calls him over to look out the window. Helena hurts and fears she’s dying. Primus says it would be best to die while sleeping, and that he’s been dreaming about her. Helena says she found a beautiful house with a garden and dogs. He calls her beautiful and they flirt in front of a mirror. Her laughter wakes up Alquist, who thinks they are people. Helena runs off when Alquist touches her.

Alquist decides to dissect Helena, and Primus threatens to smash his head in. He begs Alquist to experiment on him instead of Helena. Helena returns, and Alquist tells her that he is going to dissect Primus. She cries and says she wants to be dissected instead of Primus. Primus refuses to let her submit to dissection, and tells Alquist that they belong to one another, not him. He sends them out to become a new Adam and Eve.

After they go, Alquist reads from the Bible about the creation of people in the Book of Genesis. He asserts that love is better than technology, and declares to God that the love between the robots will create and sustain life.