R.U.R. Essay | Critical Essay #2

R.U.R. Critical Essay #2

Lewisohn reviews the 1922 London production of R.U.R., terming the production a success as both a work of ideas and an entertaining evening of theatre.

There are two kinds of notions in the world. There is the kind that hits you between the eyes; there is the kind that irradiates the soul. Thus there are two kinds of art. There is the art that dazzles and grows dark; there is the art that shines calmly and forever. It would be a sorry sort of affectation to deny one's natural interest in the merely striking and merely dazzling, especially when it is implicated with powerful forces beyond itself. But it is healthy and necessary to keep the difference in mind. I do not at all blame the Theater Guild for producing "R. U.R." by the Czechish playwright Karel Capek, especially in view of the quality of the production; I...
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