Eclectic: SSTattler - The Memorandum Preview

John - SSTattler

University of Alberta Studio Theatre: 

The Memorandum Preview 

(Halloween!)

Wednesday OCT 31, 2012, 7:30 – 10:30PM
Location Timms Centre for the Arts 
               (87 Avenue & 112 Street)
City / Town Edmonton
Event Venue University of Alberta
Description Office politics are skewered in
               this smart, sexy satire!
Event Category Theatre
Cost           $5.00
Where to purchase tickets -- The Timms Centre Box Office is open 
               for ticket sales in person 11:00am to 2:00pm 
               during weeks productions are running. Walk-up 
               tickets are available at the Box Office 1 hour 
               prior to show time.
Single Tickets  Are also available at TIX on the Square 
               (9930 102 Avenue Northwest or online at 
               www.tixonthesquare.ca)
Contact Phone 780.492.2495
Contact Email uofastudiotheatre@gmail.com
Link          www.drama.ualberta.ca …

The Memorandum

by Vaclav Havel
Translation by Vera Blackwell
Guest Director: Trevor Schmidt

Inside one large, nameless organization, the Managing Director tries to decipher an important memorandum written in a new, completely incomprehensible language that has been created to streamline office communications.

The Translation Department cannot translate the memo without a permit and the Department of Authentication refuses to authorize a permit without a translation.

Inspired by Havel’s experiences with Communist bureaucracy in Czechoslovakia, the office politics skewered in this smart, sexy satire are all too familiar for today’s audiences grappling to find meaning in the absurd doublespeak of corporate re-organization where workers are no longer laid-off but positions are disrupted.

“I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.” Vaclav Havel:

Vaclav Havel (1936 –2011).  Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. Last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003)

Havel received many awards and accolades, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award.

Other Plays:

• The Garden Party
• The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
• Audience

Productions of The Memorandum

Began writing the play in 1960 and it was rewritten several times that decade. Originally produced at Prague's Theatre of the Balustrade in 1965, the play made its American debut in 1968 at the Public Theatre in New York, winning an Obie Award for best foreign play. After 1968, Havel’s plays were banned in Czechoslovakia. The first London production of The Memorandum was in 1977.