Book cover for Capek Four Plays: R. U. R.; The Insect Play; The Makropulos Case; The White Plague by Karel Capek

Capek Four Plays

R. U. R.; The Insect Play; The Makropulos Case; The White Plague

Karel Capek
2014 Released
320 Pages
4-5 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
Methuen DramaISBN 9781408148563
Translated by Cathy Porter, Peter Majer
"There was no writer like him. . . prophetic assurance mixed with surrealistic humour and hard-edged social satire: a unique combination" (Arthur Miller)



This volume brings together fresh new translations of four of his most popular plays, more than ever relevant today. In R. U. R., the Robot - an idea Çapek was the first to invent - gradually takes over all aspects of human existence except procreation; The Insect Play is a satirical fable in which beetles, butterflies and ants give dramatic form to different philosophies of life; The Makropulos Case is a fantasy about human mortality, finally celebrating the average lifespan; The White Plague is a savage and anguished satire against fascist dictatorship and the virus of inhumanity.



Karel Capek

More by Karel Capek

War with the Newts
R.U.R.
The Absolute at Large
The Gardener's Year
R. U. R.
Tales from Two Pockets
Krakatit
Karel Capek Fairy Tales
Rossum's Universal Robots
Intimate Things
Literature and Tolerance
How a Play is Produced

Cathy Porter

Translated by

Cathy Porter has published biographies of the Russianwomen revolutionaries Alexandra Kollontai and Larissa Reisner, as well as books about women terrorists of the 1860s, Russia’s 1905 revolution, and the Battle of Moscow. She has translated more than thirty books and works for the stage, including plays by Gorky and the Czech Karel Capek. She lives in Oxford.

Peter Majer

Translated by

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