print previewback KAREL ČAPEK
R.U.R.
ACT THREE
SCENE: HELENA’S drawing-room as before. The room is dark and gray. The steel shutters which are outside are still closed as at the end of Act II. ALQUIST is sitting in chair down stage at extreme R. DOMIN comes into the room, L.2. (Subdued voices.) DR. GALL is looking out of the window at Center. He is seated in a chair.
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| R.U.R., Act III Garrick Theatre, New York, Theatre Guild Production 1922 |
DOMIN (Gets binoculars from desk; crosses up to window. To GALL)
Any more of them?
DR. GALL
Yes. There standing like a wall, beyond the garden railing. Why are they so quiet? It’s monstrous to be besieged with silence.
DOMIN (Looking through the barred windows)
I should like to know what they are waiting for? They must make a start any minute now. If they lean against the railings it will snap like a match.
DR. GALL
They aren’t armed.
DOMIN (Puzzled)
We couldn’t hold our own for five minutes. Man alive, they overwhelm us like an avalanche. Why don’t they make a rush for it? I say.
(Turns to GALL.)
DR. GALL
Well?
DOMIN
I’d like to know what will become of us in the next ten minutes. They’ve got us in a vise. We’re done for, Gall.
DR. GALL
You know, we made one serious mistake.
DOMIN
What?
DR. GALL
We made the Robots’ faces too much alike. A hundred thousand faces all alike, all facing this way. A hundred thousand expressionless bubbles. It’s like a nightmare.
DOMIN
You think if they’d been different—
DR. GALL
It wouldn’t have been such an awful sight!
DOMIN (Looks through binoculars towards the harbor)
I’d like to know what they’re unloading from the Amelia.
DR. GALL
Not firearms.
FABRY
(Enters L.2 with a plug-box to which is attached a long cable or wire. HALLEMEIER following him. FABRY attaches the cable to an electric installation which is on the floor near the wall, down stage at L.1 entrance)
All right, Hallemeier, lay down that wire.
HALLEMEIER (Just inside the room)
That was a bit of work. What’s the news?
(Seeing DOMIN and GALL at the window.)
DR. GALL
We’re completely surrounded.
HALLEMEIER (Crosses to window)
We’ve barricaded the passages and the stairs.
(Going to window)
God, what swarms of them. I don’t like the looks of them, DOMIN There’s a feeling of death about it all. Any water here?
FABRY
Ready!
DR. GALL (Turning round in the chair)
What’s that wire for, Fabry?
FABRY The electrical installation. Now we can run the current all along the garden railing. (Up to window) Whenever we like. If anyone touches it he’ll know it. We’ve still got some people there anyhow.
DR. GALL
Where?
FABRY
In the electrical works. At least, I hope so
(Goes to lamp on table L.C. and turns on lamp)
Ah, they’re there, and they’re working. As long as that’ll burn we’re all right.
(To window.)
HALLEMEIER
The barricades are all right, too, Fabry.
FABRY
Your barricades! I can put twelve hundred volts into that railing.
(HELENA is playing Rachmaninoff’s Elegie off L.1.)
DOMIN
Where’s Busman?
(DOMIN has left window and is walking up and down stage across front.)
FABRY
Downstairs in the office. He’s working out some calculations.
DOMIN
I’ve called him. We must have a conference.
(Crosses to L.)
ALQUIST
Thank God Madame Helena can still play.
(HALLEMEIER crosses to L.1 door, opens it slightly and listens to music. Enter BUSMAN L.2.)
FABRY
Look out, Bus—look out for the wires.
DR. GALL
What’s that you’re carrying?
BUSMAN. (Laying the books on the table L.C.)
The ledger, my boy. I’d like to wind up the accounts before—before—.
(DOMIN crosses up to window.)
Well, this time I shan’t wait till the New Year to strike a balance. What’s up?
(Goes to window)
Absolutely quiet.
DR. GALL
Can’t you see anything?
BUSMAN
Nothing but blue—blue everywhere.
DR. GALL
That’s the Robots.
DOMIN
The Robots are unloading firearms from the Amelia.
BUSMAN.
Well, what of it? How can I stop them?
(Returns to L.C. table, sits and opens ledger.)
DOMIN
We can’t stop them.
BUSMAN
Then let me go on with my accounts.
(Goes on with his work.)
DOMIN (Picks up telescope)
Good God! The Ultimus has trained her guns on us.
DR. GALL
Who’s done that?
DOMIN
The Robots on board.
FABRY
H’m, then of course—
(Pause)
Then—then that’s the end of us.
(To R. corner of desk.)
DR. GALL
You mean?
FABRY
The Robots are practised marksmen.
DOMIN
Yes. It’s inevitable.
(Pause.)
DR. GALL (Swinging around; looking into room. Pause)
That was criminal of old Europe to teach the Robots to fight. Damn them. Couldn’t they have given us a rest with their politics? It was a crime to make soldiers of them.
ALQUIST
It was a crime to make Robots.
DOMIN (Quietly. Down C.)
No, Alquist, I don’t regret that even today.
ALQUIST
Not even today?
DOMIN (Dreamily)
Not even today, the last day of civilization. It was a colossal achievement.
BUSMAN (Sotto voce)
Three hundred sixty million.
DOMIN (From window)
Alquist, this is our last hour. We are already speaking half in the other world. That was not an evil dream to shatter the servitude of labor. The dreadful and humiliating labor that man had to undergo. Work was too hard. Life was too hard. And to overcome that—
ALQUIST
Was not what the two Rossums dreamed of. Old Rossum only thought of his Godless tricks, and the young one of his milliards. And that’s not what your R. U. R. shareholders dream of either. They dream of dividends, and their dividends are the ruin of mankind.
DOMIN
To Hell with your dividends.
(Crossing R. in front of couch)
Do you suppose I’d have done an hour’s work for them? It was for myself that I worked, for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master. So that he shouldn’t live merely for the crust of bread. Iwanted not a single soul to be broken by other people’s machinery. I wanted nothing, nothing, nothing to be left of this appalling social structure. I’m revolted by poverty. I wanted a new generation. I wanted—I thought—
ALQUIST Well?
DOMIN (Front of couch)
I wanted to turn the whole of mankind into an aristocracy of the world. An aristocracy nourished by millions of mechanical slaves. Unrestricted, free and consummated in man. And maybe more than man.
ALQUIST Superman?
DOMIN Yes. Oh, only to have a hundred years of time. Another hundred years for the future of mankind.
BUSMAN. (Sotto voce)
Carried forward—four hundred and twenty millions.
(DOMIN sits on couch.)
HALLEMEIER (Pauses—back of couch)
What a fine thing music is. We ought to have gone in for that before.
FABRY Gone in for what?
HALLEMEIER
Beauty, lovely things. What a lot of lovely things there are. The world was wonderful, and we—we here—tell me, what enjoyment did we have?
BUSMAN. (Sotto voce)
Five hundred and twenty million.
HALLEMEIER
Life was a good thing, life was—
(Looking out of window. Directly to FABRY)
Fabry, switch the current into that railing.
FABRY
Why?
(Rushes to electric installation at L.)
HALLEMEIER
They’re grabbing hold of it.
(DOMIN rises—straightens up. ALL rise.)
DR. GALL
Connect it up.
HALLEMEIER
Fine, that’s doubled them up. Two, three, four killed.
DR. GALL
They’re retreating.
(DOMIN sits.)
HALLEMEIER
Five killed.
DR. GALL (Pause)
The first encounter.
HALLEMEIER
They’re charred to cinders, my boy. Who says we must give in?
(MUSIC stops.)
DOMIN (ALQUIST and GALL sit. Wiping his forehead)
Perhaps we’ve been killed this hundred years and are only ghosts. It’s as if I had been through all this before, as if I’d already had a mortal wound here in the throat.
(Looking at each as he speaks)
And you, Fabry, had once been shot in the head. And you, Gall, torn limb from limb. And Hallemeier knifed.
HALLEMEIER
Fancy me being knifed.
(Looks at each. Then speaks)
Why are you so quiet, you fools?
(Steps down)
Speak, can’t you?
ALQUIST
And who is to blame for all this?
HALLEMEIER
Nobody is to blame except the Robots.
ALQUIST
No, it is we are to blame. You, Domin, myself—all of us. For our own selfish ends, for profit, for progress, we have destroyed mankind. Now we’ll burst with all our greatness.
HALLEMEIER
Rubbish, man. Mankind can’t be wiped out so easily.
ALQUIST
It’s our fault. It’s our fault.
(Rises, coming R. of GALL.)
DR. GALL
No! I’m to blame for this, for everything that’s happened.
(He leaves the window and comes down to end of couch.)
FABRY
You, Gall?
DR. GALL
I changed the Robots.
BUSMAN.
What’s that?
DR. GALL
I changed the character of the Robots. I changed the way of making them. Just a few details about their bodies. Chiefly—chiefly, their—their irritability.
HALLEMEIER
Damn it, why?
BUSMAN
What did you do it for?
FABRY
Why didn’t you say anything?
DR. GALL
I did it in secret. I was transforming them into human beings. In certain respects they’re already above us. They’re stronger than we are.
FABRY
And what’s that got to do with the revolt of the Robots?
DR. GALL
Everything, in my opinion. They’ve ceased to be machines. They’re already aware of their superiority, and they hate us as they hate everything human.
DOMIN
Perhaps we’re only phantoms.
FABRY
Stop, Harry. We haven’t much time, Doctor Gall.
DOMIN
Fabry, Fabry, how your forehead bleeds where the shot pierced it.
FABRY (Crosses to GALL)
Be silent! Doctor Gall, you admit changing the way of making the Robots.
DR. GALL
Yes.
FABRY
Were you aware of what might be the consequences of your experiment?
DR. GALL
I was bound to reckon with such a possibility.
FABRY (Amusing)
Why did you do it, then?
(HELENA enters L.1.)
DR. GALL
For my own satisfaction. The experiment was my own.
HELENA
That’s not true, Doctor Gall!
(Crosses to couch.)
DOMIN (Rises)
Helena, you?
(Crosses to her)
Let’s look at you. Oh, it’s terrible to be dead.
(He rises and crushes her in his arms.)
HELENA
Stop, Harry.
DOMIN
No, no, Helena, don’t leave me now. You are life itself.
HELENA
No, dear, I won’t leave you. But I must tell them. Doctor Gall is not guilty.
FABRY
Excuse me. Gall was under certain obligations.
HELENA
No. He did it because I wanted it. Tell them, Doctor Gall—how many years ago did I ask you to—?
DR. GALL
I did it on my own responsibility.
HELENA
Don’t believe him. I asked him to give the Robots souls.
DOMIN
This has nothing to do with the soul.
HELENA
That’s what he said. He said that he could change only a physiological—a physiological—
HALLEMEIER (From up at window)
A physiological correlate?
HELENA
Yes. But it meant so much to me that he should do even that.
DOMIN Why?
HELENA
I thought that if they were more like us they would understand us better. That they couldn’t hate us if they were only a little more human.
DOMIN
Nobody can hate man more than man.
HELENA
Oh, don’t speak like that, Harry. It was so terrible, this cruel strangeness between us and them. That’s why I asked Gall to change the Robots. I swear to you that he didn’t want to.
DOMIN
But he did it.
HELENA
Because I asked him.
DR. GALL
I did it for myself as an experiment.
(Up to window.)
HELENA
No, Doctor Gall! I know you wouldn’t refuse me.
DOMIN Why?
HELENA
You know, Harry.
DOMIN
Yes, because he’s in love with you—like all of them.
(FABRY up to window. Pause. DOMIN takes her in his arms.)
HALLEMEIER
Good God, they’re sprouting up out of the earth. Why, perhaps these very walls will change into Robots.
BUSMAN. (Rises; crosses to GALL)
Gall, when did you actually start these tricks of yours?
DR. GALL
Three years ago.
BUSMAN.
Aha. And on how many Robots altogether did you carry out your improvements?
(Walking to and fro.)
DR. GALL
A few hundred of them.
BUSMAN
Ah! That means for every million of the good old Robots there’s only one of Gall’s improved pattern.
(Back to table L.C.)
DOMIN
What of it?
(Crossing around L., he stands upstage in the L.2 doorway.)
BUSMAN
That it’s of no consequence whatsoever.
FABRY
Busman’s right.
(HELENA sits in armchair R. of L.C. table.)
BUSMAN
I should think so, my boy; but do you know what is to blame for this lovely mess?
FABRY
What?
BUSMAN
The number!
(Crosses to L. of L.C. table)
Upon my soul, we might have known that some day or other the Robots would be stronger than human beings, and that this was bound to happen. And we were doing all we could to bring it about as soon as possible. You, Domin, you, Fabry, myself—
DOMIN
Are you accusing us?
(Turning on him.)
BUSMAN
Oh, do you suppose the management controls the output? It’s the demand that controls the output.
HELENA
And is it for that we must perish?
BUSMAN
That’s a nasty word, Madame HELENA We don’t want to perish. I don’t, anyhow.
(He sits L. of table.)
DOMIN
No? What do you want to do?
BUSMAN
I want to get out of this, that’s all.
DOMIN
Oh, stop it, Busman.
BUSMAN
Seriously, Harry, I think we might try it.
DOMIN
How?
(To front again.)
BUSMAN
By fair means. I do everything by fair means. Give me a free hand and I’ll negotiate with the Robots.
DOMIN
By fair means?
BUSMAN (Rises)
Of course. For instance, I’ll say to them: “Worthy and Worshipful Robots, you have everything. You have intellect, you have power, you have firearms. But we have just one interesting screed, a dirty old yellow scrap of paper—”
DOMIN Rossum’s manuscript?
(Interest from ALL. GALL is at C., near couch. HALLEMEIER is up at window C.)
BUSMAN
Yes. “And that,” I’ll tell them, “contains an account of your illustrious origin, the noble process of your manufacture and so on. Worthy Robots, without this scribble on that paper you will not be able to produce a single new colleague. In another twenty years there will not be the living specimen of a Robot whom you could exhibit in a menagerie. My esteemed friends, that would be a great blow to you, but if you will let all of us human beings on Rossum’s Island go on board that ship we will deliver the factory and the secret of the process to you in return. You allow us to get away, and we will allow you to manufacture yourselves. That, worthy Robots, is a fair deal. Something for something.” That’s what I’d say to them, my boys.
(Sits.)
DOMIN (Crosses to C.)
Busman, do you think we’d sell the manuscript?
BUSMAN
Yes, I do. If not in a friendly way, then—either we sell it or they’ll find it. Just as you like.
DOMIN
Busman, we can destroy Rossum’s manuscript.
BUSMAN
Then we destroy everything—not only the manuscript but ourselves. Just as you think fit.
DOMIN
There are over thirty of us on this island. Are we to sell the secret? And save that many souls at the risk of enslaving mankind—
BUSMAN
Why, you’re mad. Who’d sell the whole manuscript?
DOMIN
Busman, no cheating!
(To L.C. table.)
BUSMAN
Well then, sell, but afterwards—
DOMIN
Well?
BUSMAN
Let’s suppose this happens. When we’re on board the Ultimus I’ll stop up my ears with cotton wool, lie down somewhere in the hold, and you’ll train the guns on the factory and blow it to smithereens, and with it Rossum’s secret.
FABRY (Rises)
No!
DOMIN
Busman, you’re no—gentleman. If we sell them it will be a straight sale.
BUSMAN. (Rises)
It’s in the interest of humanity to—
DOMIN
It’s in the interest of humanity to keep our word—
HALLEMEIER
Oh, come, what rubbish!
DOMIN
This is a fearful decision. We are selling the destiny of mankind. Are we to sell or destroy? Fabry?
FABRY
Sell.
DOMIN
Gall?
DR. GALL
Sell.
DOMIN
Hallemeier?
HALLEMEIER
Sell, of course.
DOMIN
Alquist?
ALQUIST
As God wills.
DOMIN (Starts off R.)
Very well, gentlemen.
HELENA
Harry, you’re not asking me.
DOMIN (Stops. To her)
No, child.
(Starting R.)
Don’t you worry about it.
(He pats her shoulder.)
FABRY
Who’ll do the negotiating?
BUSMAN
I will. (Up to window.)
DOMIN
Wait till I bring the manuscript. (DOMIN goes out R.)
HELENA (Rises)
Harry, don’t go!
(HELENA sits. ALL look at her. Pause.)
FABRY (Looking out of window)
Oh, to escape you! you—matter—in revolt; oh, to preserve human life, if only upon a single vessel—
DR. GALL
Don’t be afraid.
(Going to back of couch)
Madame Helena. We’ll sail far away from here; we’ll begin life all over again.
HELENA
Oh, Gall, don’t speak.
FABRY (Crosses to L. of GALL)
It isn’t too late.
(Going to L. of her chair)
It will be a little State with one ship. Alquist will build us a house and you shall rule over us.
HALLEMEIER (Crosses to L. of FABRY)
Madame Helena, Fabry’s right.
HELENA (Breaking down)
Oh, stop! Stop!
BUSMAN.
Good!
(Crosses to L. of L.C. table)
I don’t mind beginning all over again. That suits me right down to the ground.
(Going through papers on table.)
FABRY
And this little State of ours could be the center of future life. A place of refuge where we could gather strength. Why, in a few hundred years we could conquer the world again.
ALQUIST
You believe that even today?
FABRY
Yes!
BUSMAN.
Amen. You see, Madame Helena, we’re not so badly off.
DOMIN (Storms into R. To R. of couch. Hoarsely)
Where’s old Rossum’s manuscript?
(To R.C.)
BUSMAN
In your strong-box, of course.
DOMIN
Someone—has—stolen it!
DR. GALL
Impossible.
DOMIN
Who has stolen it?
HELENA (Standing up)
I did.
(Reactions from FABRY and HALLEMEIER)
DOMIN
Where did you put it?
HELENA
Harry, I’ll tell you everything. Only forgive me.
DOMIN
Where did you put it?
HELENA (Pointing to fireplace)
This morning—I burnt—the two copies.
DOMIN
Burnt them? Where—in the fireplace?
(Goes to fireplace, followed by FABRY, HALLEMEIER and BUSMAN.)
HELENA (Throwing herself on her knees. By sofa, facing upstage)
For Heaven’s sake, Harry.
DOMIN (Going to fireplace)
Nothing—nothing but ashes. Wait, what’s this?
(Picks out a charred piece of paper and reads, “By adding.” FABRY, GALL and HALLEMEIER move up to him.)
DR. GALL
Let’s see. “By adding biogen to—” That’s all.
DOMIN
Is that part of it?
DR. GALL (Carrying paper down and letting it fall)
Yes.
(GALL crosses to L.C. HALLEMEIER to R. of L.C. table; FABRY to window; BUSMAN to L. of L.C. table.)
BUSMAN. God in Heaven!
(Sits L. of table.)
DOMIN
Then we’re done for. Get up, Helena.
HELENA
Then you’ve forgiven me?
DOMIN
Get up, child. I can’t bear—
FABRY (Lifting her up)
Please don’t torture us.
HELENA
Harry, what have I done?
FABRY (Coming to HELENA)
Don’t, Madame HELENA
DOMIN (Takes HELENA to couch. She sits.)
Gall, you couldn’t draw up Rossum’s formula from memory?
DR. GALL
It’s out of the question. Even with my recent experiments, I couldn’t work without referring to the formula—
(At L.C.)
It’s extremely complicated.
DOMIN
Try. All our lives depend upon it.
DR. GALL
Without experiments it’s impossible.
DOMIN
And with experiments?
DR. GALL
It might take years. Besides, I’m not old Rossum.
BUSMAN
God in Heaven! God in Heaven!
DOMIN (Up to fireplace)
So then this was the greatest triumph of the human intellect. These ashes.
HELENA
Harry, what have I done?
DOMIN (Comes to her)
Why did you burn it?
HELENA
I have destroyed you.
BUSMAN. God in Heaven!
DOMIN (Sits R. of her)
Helena, why did you do it, dear?
HELENA
I wanted all of us to go away. I wanted to put an end to the factory and everything. It was so awful.
DOMIN
What was awful?
HELENA
That children had stopped being born. Because human beings were not needed to do the work of the world. That’s why—
DOMIN
Is that what you were thinking of? Well, perhaps in your own way you are right.
BUSMAN
Wait a bit.
(Rising)
Good God, what a fool I am not to have thought of it before.
HALLEMEIER
What?
BUSMAN
Five hundred and twenty millions in bank-notes and checks. Half a billion in our safe. They’ll sell for half a billion—for half a billion they’ll—
(Crosses to DOMIN)
DR. GALL
Are you mad, Busman?
BUSMAN
I may not be a gentleman, but for a half a billion—
(Crosses back to L.)
DOMIN
Where are you going?
(GALL clutches BUSMAN.)
BUSMAN
Leave me alone. Leave me alone! Good God, for half a billion anything can be bought.
(GALL and HALLEMEIER after him, then stop. He rushes out L.2. FABRY, GALL and HALLEMEIER to window.)
FABRY
They stand there as if turned to stone—waiting as if something dreadful could be wrought by their silence—
HALLEMEIER (Looking out window)
The spirit of the mob.
FABRY
Yes. It hovers above them like a quivering of the air.
HELENA
Oh, God! Doctor Gall, this is ghastly!
FABRY
There is nothing more terrible than the mob. The one in front is their leader.
(DOMIN crosses to window.)
HELENA (Rises)
Which one?
(Rushing to window.)
HALLEMEIER
Point him out.
FABRY (L. window)
The one at the edge of the dock. This morning I saw him talking to the sailors in the harbor.
HELENA
Doctor Gall, that’s RADIUS
(Backing into the room, horror-stricken.)
DR. GALL
Yes.
DOMIN
Radius! Radius!
HALLEMEIER
Could you get him from here, Fabry?
FABRY
I hope so.
HALLEMEIER
Try it, then.
FABRY
Good—
(Draws his revolver and takes his aim.)
HELENA (To FABRY)
Fabry, don’t shoot him.
FABRY
He’s their leader.
DR. GALL
Fire!
(Standing above table L.C.)
HELENA
Fabry, I beg of you.
(She goes to FABRY and holds his arm.)
FABRY (Pause. Lowering the revolver)
Very well.
DOMIN
It was Radius’ life I spared.
DR. GALL
Do you think that a Robot can be grateful? (Pause.)
FABRY
Busman’s going out to them.
HALLEMEIER
He’s carrying something. Papers. That’s money. Bundles of money. What’s that for?
DOMIN
Surely he doesn’t want to sell his life.
(He rushes to window C.)
Busman, have you gone mad?
FABRY
He’s running up to the railing. Busman. Busman.
HALLEMEIER (Yelling)
Busman, come back.
FABRY
He’s talking to the Robots. He’s showing them the money.
HALLEMEIER
He’s pointing to us.
HELENA
He wants to buy us off.
FABRY
He’d better not touch the railing.
HALLEMEIER
Now he’s waving his arms about.
DOMIN
Busman, come back!
FABRY
Busman, keep away from that railing. Don’t touch it, damn you. Quick, switch off the current.
(DOMIN runs to L. HELENA screams and ALL drop back from the window.)
The current has killed him.
ALQUIST (Pause)
The first one.
(Still in chair down R. HELENA sits in chair at window.)
FABRY
Dead, with half a billion by his side.
(Crosses down to table L.C.)
HALLEMEIER
All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life.
(Crosses to chair L. Pause. WIND machine begin.)
DR. GALL
Do you hear?
DOMIN
A roaring. Like a wind.
(To L.)
DR. GALL
Like a storm.
FABRY (Lighting the table lamp at table L.C.)
The dynamo is still going—our people are still there.
HALLEMEIER
It was a great thing to be a man.
(Facing lamp from up C.)
There was something immense about it.
FABRY (Facing the lamp)
From man’s thought and man’s power came this light, our last hope.
(Leaning over lamp.)
HALLEMEIER (Facing lamp)
Man’s power! May it keep watch over us.
(Leaning over lamp.)
ALQUIST (Facing lamp)
Man’s power.
DOMIN (At corner of table down L.C. Facing lamp)
Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand from age to age forever!
(The LAMP goes out. EXPLOSIONS.)
HALLEMEIER
The end.
FABRY
The electric works have fallen!
(Terrific EXPLOSIONS outside. More EXPLOSIONS.)
DOMIN
In here, HELENA
(He takes HELENA off through door R. and re-enters)
Now quickly! Who’ll be on the lower doorway?
DR. GALL
I will.
(Rushes out L.2.)
DOMIN (Near couch)
Who on the stairs?
FABRY
I will. You go with her.
(Going out L.2.)
DOMIN
The ante room?
ALQUIST
I will.
(He rises and goes toward the L.1.)
DOMIN
Have you got a revolver?
ALQUIST
Yes, but I won’t shoot.
DOMIN
What will you do, then?
ALQUIST (Going out L.1)
Die.
HALLEMEIER
I’ll stay here.
(EXPLOSIONS. Rapid firing of MACHINE GUN from below.)
Go to her, Harry.
DOMIN
Yes, in a second.
(Gets from fireplace and examines two Browning guns.)
(WARN Curtain.)
HALLEMEIER
Confound it, go to her.
DOMIN
Goodbye.
(Exits R.)
HALLEMEIER (Alone)
Now for a barricade quickly!
(Drags an armchair, sofa and table to R. door)
The damned devils, they’ve got bombs. Imust put up a defense. Even if—even if— Don’t give in, Gall.
(As he builds his barricade)
I mustn’t give in—without—a—struggle.
(A ROBOT enters through windows at back. The ROBOT jumps down from balcony and stabs HALLEMEIER in the back. Enter RADIUS from balcony.)
ROBOT (Standing up from prostrate form of HALLEMEIER.)
Yes.
(Other ROBOTS enter from all doors. A revolver SHOT off L.)
RADIUS
Finished them all—
ROBOTS. Yes, yes, yes.
TWO ROBOTS. (Dragging in ALQUIST L.1)
He didn’t shoot. Shall we kill him?
RADIUS
No. Leave him!
ROBOT
He is a man!
RADIUS
He works with his hands like the Robots.
ALQUIST
Kill me.
RADIUS
You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us!
(RADIUS climbs on the balcony)
Robots of the world—
(ROBOTS straighten up.)
the power of man has fallen. A new world has arisen, the rule of the Robots, march.
(On the line: “Robots of the world” ALL ROBOTS turn quickly, automatically to attention, facing RADIUS, who is standing. On the words: “The rule of the Robots,” they stand there with their arms vibrating high in the air. They form in two lines, turn to audience and march mechanically to the footlights. As they are about to step over the footlights, as if into the audience, all LIGHTS go out. The ROBOTS immediately step back from the Curtain line as the Curtain falls.)
CURTAIN