When robots first came to London

. The start of a review of Karel Capek’s RUR in London Opinion The word robots first came into the English language from Karel Capek’s play RUR. The London premiere was at St Martin’s Theatre in April 1923. The play had first been seen in Prague two years before and RUR was an abbreviation of Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti – Rossum’s Universal Robots. London Opinion, a popular penny weekly, reviewed the play in its issue of June 2nd. The magazine’s ‘Playful Stallite’ questions its originality: R.U.R. is an amazingly good and extremely effective melodrama, but if you want fresh and original brains, you’ll get more for your money if you buy a sheep’s head. The review references La Poupée, a French comic opera from 1896 based around a living doll, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. One paragraph sounds like a premonition of Wallace & Gromit: Poor old Karel woke up that night dreaming he was being chased by wild Hoovers. He imagined he was being shaved by rusty lawn mowers, his trousers,…