Rops

Estonian sci-fi writer Boris Kabur´s (1917-2002) cybernetic children’s plays Rops (staged in 1964) and Rops Helps Everyone (staged in 1965, both plays published in 1967) join the scientific zeitgeist of the time by using fairytale devices to explain to children the truths of modern science, i.e. cybernetics.

Cyber boy Rops is an everyday life character who resembles humans in almost every sense and humorously embodies the artificial intelligence ideal of scientific and technological progress. By contemplating the problem of the conscience and most importantly, of good and evil, and through portraying the metaphorical relationship between man and machine, Kabur explores the ethical side of technocracy of the day. His plays criticize the bureaucratic Soviet school and education system, which favored robotic behavior, rigid thinking and putting the collective first.

His plays were repeatedly staged in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Finland, but also by Estonian drama societies in the US and Australia. In 1982, Ellu Puudist directed the play for Estonian television (ETV), with child actors from a folk theatre company named after Jaan Tomb.