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The Garden Party and Other Plays
Gathered together here for the first time are seven plays that span Havel's career from his early days at the Theater of the Balustrade through the Prague Spring, Charter 77, and the repeated imprisonments that made Havel's name into a rallying cry and propelled him to the leadership of his country. They include The Garden Party, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, Mistake, the Vanek trilogy of Audience, Unveiling, and Protest, and the first fully corrected English version of The Memorandum--the play that won Havel the Obie for Best Foreign Play in 1968.
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
Václav Havel
268 books495 followersVáclav Havel was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award. He was also voted 4th in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals. He was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.
Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto 'Charter 77' brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.
Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto 'Charter 77' brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
December 23, 2010
A book that was given to me as a present by one of dearest mentors in high school, my public speaking coach who wrote a dedication on the first page saying "It's time to stop fooling myself: smart books belong with smart people." So, taking my mentor's word for it, I assumed that this would be a smart book (one which a smart person like myself could handle) and I embarked on a voyage that took me along unexpected paths, surprise twists and turns, all the while, keeping the Northern Star in sight and seeing some common themes throughout the various plays that Vaclav Havel wrote from the early 1960s until the late 1970s.
I was intrigued by the prospect of reading this book. My only familiarity with Czech literature was through the works of Milan Kundera, who was quoted saying that "If there are any theatres left that base work entirely on the writer's text, theatres that value the development of poetry in drama, then Havel's plays will never be out of repertoire." I love Milan Kundera for the lyricism of his literary dramas, the almost Greek tragedy-like characters, and poignant depictions of life under communism. I was not wrong to expect that Havel would have the same poignancy in his plays while also employing virulent ideas through subtle language against the dangers of totalitarianism, demagoguery, and censorship. I also have great respect for the dissident members of Charter 77 and the brave artists who performed their art, life and dissent at the Theater of the Balustrade before, during and after Prague Spring. I wrote my political science thesis in college on dissident movements in Poland and Czechoslovakia and the efforts of Havel, unwilling Charter 77 leader and later president of the Czech Republic featured strongly in my research. One of my favorite works about the power of dissent, the importance that art, family, friendship and the private sphere can play under a totalitarian regime is Havel's memorable "Power of the Powerless". The stage was set (so to speak) for me to enjoy this collection of plays. So what are my impressions on them?
I was surprised to see how much freedom of speech Havel had in his early plays and the unwilling restraint he employs in his later ones, presumably post-1968. It should not have surprised me that the Czechs were much more free in the early 1960s than the rest of the Eastern bloc and then became one of the most insulated people in the region for fear of more Soviet retaliation. The plays "The Garden Party" and "The Memorandum" were by far my two favorite ones in the collection. Both of them delve into the notion of the loss of individuality and conviction in the face of repression or peer pressure. One of the last quotes in "The Memorandum" - a play on the invention of a synthetic and efficient language to increase the clarity and precision of inter-office communication - is "you must not lose your hope, your love of life and your trust in people". The alienation of people from their peers and from themselves is perceived as an irretrievable loss of humanity. Manipulated, automized little cog in a system that erases all form of individuality in exchange for submission "man loses the experience of his own totality; horrified he stares as a stranger at himself, unable to not be what he is not, nor to be what he is." The play on words, the subtle language, the comic relief at interesting twists of phrases are mind-boggling - superb translation work which managed to grasp the essence of the text without robbing it of its stylistic value.
A series of 4 plays "The Audience", "Unveiling", "Protest" and "Mistake" employ the same central character, a politically undesirable playwright who has been reduced to work in a brewery. Vanek is confronted in his daily life with dubious people whom you are never too sure if he should trust because they could be "double agents" who monitor his moves, make him seemingly friendly offers of help, and lure him into their world in order to make him betray/compromise himself and be once and for all eliminated. There is no resolution of Vanek's situation but Havel has lost his initial optimism by the end of the series.
I hope anyone who reads or sees Havel's plays will see his brilliance, sophistication, sensitivity, creativity and unwavering belief in people's goodness and hope.
I was intrigued by the prospect of reading this book. My only familiarity with Czech literature was through the works of Milan Kundera, who was quoted saying that "If there are any theatres left that base work entirely on the writer's text, theatres that value the development of poetry in drama, then Havel's plays will never be out of repertoire." I love Milan Kundera for the lyricism of his literary dramas, the almost Greek tragedy-like characters, and poignant depictions of life under communism. I was not wrong to expect that Havel would have the same poignancy in his plays while also employing virulent ideas through subtle language against the dangers of totalitarianism, demagoguery, and censorship. I also have great respect for the dissident members of Charter 77 and the brave artists who performed their art, life and dissent at the Theater of the Balustrade before, during and after Prague Spring. I wrote my political science thesis in college on dissident movements in Poland and Czechoslovakia and the efforts of Havel, unwilling Charter 77 leader and later president of the Czech Republic featured strongly in my research. One of my favorite works about the power of dissent, the importance that art, family, friendship and the private sphere can play under a totalitarian regime is Havel's memorable "Power of the Powerless". The stage was set (so to speak) for me to enjoy this collection of plays. So what are my impressions on them?
I was surprised to see how much freedom of speech Havel had in his early plays and the unwilling restraint he employs in his later ones, presumably post-1968. It should not have surprised me that the Czechs were much more free in the early 1960s than the rest of the Eastern bloc and then became one of the most insulated people in the region for fear of more Soviet retaliation. The plays "The Garden Party" and "The Memorandum" were by far my two favorite ones in the collection. Both of them delve into the notion of the loss of individuality and conviction in the face of repression or peer pressure. One of the last quotes in "The Memorandum" - a play on the invention of a synthetic and efficient language to increase the clarity and precision of inter-office communication - is "you must not lose your hope, your love of life and your trust in people". The alienation of people from their peers and from themselves is perceived as an irretrievable loss of humanity. Manipulated, automized little cog in a system that erases all form of individuality in exchange for submission "man loses the experience of his own totality; horrified he stares as a stranger at himself, unable to not be what he is not, nor to be what he is." The play on words, the subtle language, the comic relief at interesting twists of phrases are mind-boggling - superb translation work which managed to grasp the essence of the text without robbing it of its stylistic value.
A series of 4 plays "The Audience", "Unveiling", "Protest" and "Mistake" employ the same central character, a politically undesirable playwright who has been reduced to work in a brewery. Vanek is confronted in his daily life with dubious people whom you are never too sure if he should trust because they could be "double agents" who monitor his moves, make him seemingly friendly offers of help, and lure him into their world in order to make him betray/compromise himself and be once and for all eliminated. There is no resolution of Vanek's situation but Havel has lost his initial optimism by the end of the series.
I hope anyone who reads or sees Havel's plays will see his brilliance, sophistication, sensitivity, creativity and unwavering belief in people's goodness and hope.
December 30, 2014
Started for this book group.
All unquestionably interesting as historical artefacts, as drama some of Vaclav Havel's plays have aged better than others. In general, Theatre of the Absurd appears very unfashionable at the moment and it's a rare sighting except at large festivals like Edinburgh.
Reading these plays outside academia, there are few resources: the odd article on Havel, occasional reviews of performances, but films or detailed commentary are absent. This edition has no introduction nor footnotes.
The Garden Party
In a Kafkaesque environment conveyed by repetitive dialogue and a confused sense of time, Hugo successfully climbs the Czechoslovakian civil service ladder, at some cost to his personal identity. It still has the potential to chime with the modern corporate or public sector environment, though the sense of boredom and slow fear situates it historically.
The Memorandum
For the modern reader, this could have made a better short story than a play, perhaps. Attempts to impose a new, synthetic language to control and improve civil service communication lead to interpersonal machinations and absurd contradictions. Sometimes augh-out-loud funny, but also marked by long polemic speeches. The length of this play creates greater emotional involvement with the characters; if the work were shorter they could have ended up simply being symbols.
The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Inventive farce about a philandering sociology professor and a team who try to interview him using a malfunctioning early computer. It's a transparent metaphor for the party machine, but manages to be entertaining of itself. I couldn't help wondering how much of Havel the womaniser makes up Prof. Huml.
Audience
The best, most modern and most accessible of these plays. Evidently it's closely based on the period when the Communist Party sent Havel to work in a brewery: this is a two-man play featuring the Mary-Sue, Vanek, and a Foreman. Conversation is natural (though with a few instances of absurdist repetition): banter is traded, the foreman drunkenly tries to talk Vanek into introducing him to an attractive actress, class resentments are aired without ever seeming forced. It felt like real insight into people in 1970's Czechoslovakia.
Unveiling
Vanek is invited to the newly decorated flat of a couple of friends whose pretentious concerns with fashion rival any 2000's hipsters. Havel is making the point that people should be concerned with important political issues, not cultural innovations, but he fails to understand the other perspective, the fear that may drive escapism, and the question of present quality of life. I have some sympathy with the hipster couple, though the later dialogue Havel gives them emphatically makes them look foolish.
Protest
Again Havel rails against intelligent people who have a different approach to life under the Communist regime. Stanek is also a playwright, more successful and working for television; he sympathises privately with Vanek's views but publicly compromises in order to make a good living for himself and his family.
Mistake
Finally, this is a different beast all together: an aggressive symbolic short scene set in a prison
There is a serious shortage of strong, active and sympathetic female characters here - Anna Balcar in Difficulty of Concentration is the only one who stands out. It's somewhat disappointing given the outsider nature of these pieces, and contributes to the dated feel of some of the plays. And inevitably one wonders to what extent this relates to Havel's own attitudes to women - though it is very plausible they changed in the decades after these plays were written.
Havel practically never shows loyal party members as evil, unlike many writers of Communist eastern europe. He was unusually belevolent in opposing recriminations when he was elected President, and he always supported the rights of unpopular minorities such as Roma in the face of a critical electorate.
All unquestionably interesting as historical artefacts, as drama some of Vaclav Havel's plays have aged better than others. In general, Theatre of the Absurd appears very unfashionable at the moment and it's a rare sighting except at large festivals like Edinburgh.
Reading these plays outside academia, there are few resources: the odd article on Havel, occasional reviews of performances, but films or detailed commentary are absent. This edition has no introduction nor footnotes.
The Garden Party
In a Kafkaesque environment conveyed by repetitive dialogue and a confused sense of time, Hugo successfully climbs the Czechoslovakian civil service ladder, at some cost to his personal identity. It still has the potential to chime with the modern corporate or public sector environment, though the sense of boredom and slow fear situates it historically.
The Memorandum
For the modern reader, this could have made a better short story than a play, perhaps. Attempts to impose a new, synthetic language to control and improve civil service communication lead to interpersonal machinations and absurd contradictions. Sometimes augh-out-loud funny, but also marked by long polemic speeches. The length of this play creates greater emotional involvement with the characters; if the work were shorter they could have ended up simply being symbols.
The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Inventive farce about a philandering sociology professor and a team who try to interview him using a malfunctioning early computer. It's a transparent metaphor for the party machine, but manages to be entertaining of itself. I couldn't help wondering how much of Havel the womaniser makes up Prof. Huml.
Audience
The best, most modern and most accessible of these plays. Evidently it's closely based on the period when the Communist Party sent Havel to work in a brewery: this is a two-man play featuring the Mary-Sue, Vanek, and a Foreman. Conversation is natural (though with a few instances of absurdist repetition): banter is traded, the foreman drunkenly tries to talk Vanek into introducing him to an attractive actress, class resentments are aired without ever seeming forced. It felt like real insight into people in 1970's Czechoslovakia.
Unveiling
Vanek is invited to the newly decorated flat of a couple of friends whose pretentious concerns with fashion rival any 2000's hipsters. Havel is making the point that people should be concerned with important political issues, not cultural innovations, but he fails to understand the other perspective, the fear that may drive escapism, and the question of present quality of life. I have some sympathy with the hipster couple, though the later dialogue Havel gives them emphatically makes them look foolish.
Protest
Again Havel rails against intelligent people who have a different approach to life under the Communist regime. Stanek is also a playwright, more successful and working for television; he sympathises privately with Vanek's views but publicly compromises in order to make a good living for himself and his family.
Mistake
Finally, this is a different beast all together: an aggressive symbolic short scene set in a prison
There is a serious shortage of strong, active and sympathetic female characters here - Anna Balcar in Difficulty of Concentration is the only one who stands out. It's somewhat disappointing given the outsider nature of these pieces, and contributes to the dated feel of some of the plays. And inevitably one wonders to what extent this relates to Havel's own attitudes to women - though it is very plausible they changed in the decades after these plays were written.
Havel practically never shows loyal party members as evil, unlike many writers of Communist eastern europe. He was unusually belevolent in opposing recriminations when he was elected President, and he always supported the rights of unpopular minorities such as Roma in the face of a critical electorate.
April 8, 2022
gorgino
May 27, 2019
I picked up this collection of 7 plays because I was curious about what dissident theater looked like. I found the plays really insightful in their critiques of the dehumanizing nature of totalitarian bureaucracies, particularly Havel's use of verbatim repetition and political intrigue.
I waffled back and forth on whether to give this collection a three or four star rating. There were three plays that I quite liked and four that were just fine. In the end, it was that The Increased Difficulty of Concentration really wowed me and I've felt compelled to talk with others about it that pushed it up to four stars.
My favorite play in this collection was The Increased Difficulty of Concentration. It explores the complicated and contradictory morality of Dr. Huml, as he juggles his work as a social scientist and his complex social relationships. It presents a nonlinear narrative, using multiple exits from the stage and quick changes to indicate the various scenes that are playing out. This was perhaps my favorite use of Havel's characteristic verbatim dialogue because it suggested both the commonalities (or the lack of individuality) of people and Dr. Huml's inability to see people as individuals.
My second favorite was The Memorandum. It presented an interesting contrast between the humanistic philosophy of the protagonist and the technocratic philosophy of the antagonist. It showed the absurdities of bureaucracies trying to eliminate human error and human feeling from a business endeavor, and also the intra-office politics of people seeking power.
My third favorite was Protest. It presents the considerations one has to make when deciding whether or not to protest when there's the threat of retaliation. It raised important questions of what do we value and what is worth sacrificing for. While there was some repetition in here, it was more natural and followed the rhythms of a more natural conversation.
I waffled back and forth on whether to give this collection a three or four star rating. There were three plays that I quite liked and four that were just fine. In the end, it was that The Increased Difficulty of Concentration really wowed me and I've felt compelled to talk with others about it that pushed it up to four stars.
My favorite play in this collection was The Increased Difficulty of Concentration. It explores the complicated and contradictory morality of Dr. Huml, as he juggles his work as a social scientist and his complex social relationships. It presents a nonlinear narrative, using multiple exits from the stage and quick changes to indicate the various scenes that are playing out. This was perhaps my favorite use of Havel's characteristic verbatim dialogue because it suggested both the commonalities (or the lack of individuality) of people and Dr. Huml's inability to see people as individuals.
My second favorite was The Memorandum. It presented an interesting contrast between the humanistic philosophy of the protagonist and the technocratic philosophy of the antagonist. It showed the absurdities of bureaucracies trying to eliminate human error and human feeling from a business endeavor, and also the intra-office politics of people seeking power.
My third favorite was Protest. It presents the considerations one has to make when deciding whether or not to protest when there's the threat of retaliation. It raised important questions of what do we value and what is worth sacrificing for. While there was some repetition in here, it was more natural and followed the rhythms of a more natural conversation.
March 25, 2024
Lentils are lentils and oats are oats.
March 24, 2023
Václav Havel is one of my modern-day heroes; having read a fine biography of him, and having read of his interactions with a favourite playwright, the Englishman Tom Stoppard, I was interested to have direct contact with Havel’s writing.
Havel was always viewed with suspicion in communist-ruled Czechoslovakia as a result of his family’s bourgeois background. He found work in Prague’s theatres and studied theatre arts. His first play was The Garden Party , performed in 1963 and drawing on the contemporary absurdist movement in world theatre. There is some mild reference to political matters, with the recognition that there is a danger in being identified as a “bourgeois intellectual”. However, the focus is more on existential absurdity, along with some Brechtian alienation (one character consoles another: “Never mind, love. When I was starting out I used to get even smaller parts than this.” And Falk concludes the play: “And now, without sort of much ado – go home.”) There is also a nod to the linguistic absurdity of the banal: “However, progress progresses and we mustn’t get stuck with mere abstract proclamations. You know, I always say the man – man lives! And so, in the same way, you too – now let’s not be afraid to open our trap and say aloud – you too must live! You see, chums, life – life is a bloody marvellous thing. Don’t you think?”
The second play in this collection, The Memorandum , is more overtly political. Here, Havel focuses on ludicrous centralist-mandated programs beloved of totalitarian bureaucrats. A new language is invented to remove the ambiguities of organically-evolved language (echoes of Orwell’s “Newspeak”) with the overlooked complication that no-one can understand it.
In The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (written in 1968, the year of the Soviet invasion), experimenters are developing a machine to identify the real psychology of a subject. But, regardless of the technicians interventions, it never works. In counterpoint, the major character dictates a lecture on differing human value schemes, while carrying on a series of extra-marital affairs and representing these in differing self-justifying terms to his wife and his mistresses. All of this being carried out in ignorance of the contradiction of his lecture.
Audience , and Unveiling both written in 1975, examine the world of the informer and the informed-upon, and the problems encountered after release from incarceration. The plays also reflect on how one might respond when someone is being investigated by the authorities. In both plays a somewhat bemused Vanek apparently represents Havel himself.
The final play in this collection is Mistake . Havel was imprisoned between 1979 and 1983 for his writings and actions in opposition to the totalitarian regime. Mistake is a wry picture of how prison inmates take over the role of prison authority.
This group of plays provides a valuable insight to the libertarian philosophical underpinnings of Václav Havel’s years of protests and resistance, and then to how those informed the conversion into practical behaviour as politician and president.
Havel was always viewed with suspicion in communist-ruled Czechoslovakia as a result of his family’s bourgeois background. He found work in Prague’s theatres and studied theatre arts. His first play was The Garden Party , performed in 1963 and drawing on the contemporary absurdist movement in world theatre. There is some mild reference to political matters, with the recognition that there is a danger in being identified as a “bourgeois intellectual”. However, the focus is more on existential absurdity, along with some Brechtian alienation (one character consoles another: “Never mind, love. When I was starting out I used to get even smaller parts than this.” And Falk concludes the play: “And now, without sort of much ado – go home.”) There is also a nod to the linguistic absurdity of the banal: “However, progress progresses and we mustn’t get stuck with mere abstract proclamations. You know, I always say the man – man lives! And so, in the same way, you too – now let’s not be afraid to open our trap and say aloud – you too must live! You see, chums, life – life is a bloody marvellous thing. Don’t you think?”
The second play in this collection, The Memorandum , is more overtly political. Here, Havel focuses on ludicrous centralist-mandated programs beloved of totalitarian bureaucrats. A new language is invented to remove the ambiguities of organically-evolved language (echoes of Orwell’s “Newspeak”) with the overlooked complication that no-one can understand it.
In The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (written in 1968, the year of the Soviet invasion), experimenters are developing a machine to identify the real psychology of a subject. But, regardless of the technicians interventions, it never works. In counterpoint, the major character dictates a lecture on differing human value schemes, while carrying on a series of extra-marital affairs and representing these in differing self-justifying terms to his wife and his mistresses. All of this being carried out in ignorance of the contradiction of his lecture.
Audience , and Unveiling both written in 1975, examine the world of the informer and the informed-upon, and the problems encountered after release from incarceration. The plays also reflect on how one might respond when someone is being investigated by the authorities. In both plays a somewhat bemused Vanek apparently represents Havel himself.
The final play in this collection is Mistake . Havel was imprisoned between 1979 and 1983 for his writings and actions in opposition to the totalitarian regime. Mistake is a wry picture of how prison inmates take over the role of prison authority.
This group of plays provides a valuable insight to the libertarian philosophical underpinnings of Václav Havel’s years of protests and resistance, and then to how those informed the conversion into practical behaviour as politician and president.
January 20, 2023
This collection is a mixed bag. The Garden Party, for example, was extremely tedious and ought to have been a 10 minute play or an Einakter. Ditto for The Memorandum. Stalinist art sucks, but art written in reaction to it can suck just as much. I didn't find The Increased Difficulty of Concentration to be much more than a drawing room farce, but The Audience and The Unveiling were interesting, portraying two sides of Havel's alter-ego playwright Ferdinand Vanek's reduced status after going to prison. In the Audience, Vanek is just trying to make the best of being blackballed from the stage and forced to work in a brewery. In the Unveiling his bougie/nominally Communist friends Michael and Vera want to re-fashion him into their own image -- from gourmet cuisine, to Swiss records, to designer decor, to having a kid like theirs. They even offer to let him see how they make love. I imagine one point here is that Capitalism demands precisely the same type of conformity as the old Communist regime. But the kicker is that the couple is shattered when Vanek becomes uncomfortable with their exhibitionism and leaves, depriving them of the "unveiling" of their ill-gotten riches and their tawdry private lives. IMO this was the second-best piece in the collection. A companion piece, Protest, has Vanek confronted by sellout Stanek, a former playwright who now works for the regime TV station. Stanek has asked Vanek to help him with a human rights issue, but then offers him a two-paged monologue of excuses for himself not being a human rights fighter. We have the sneaking suspicion that Stanek is about to offer Vanek up to the authorities, but instead the piece is a display of the elaborate excuses sellouts offer. And, for me, this is the winner of the collection. A final piece in which a [Chinese?] prisoner is beaten up by racist prison thugs because he can't understand a word they're saying is, at best, a reminder of how nationalism is an ongoing problem in the Czech Republic.
June 10, 2025
Shockingly relevant and surprisingly entertaining short plays about fascism: the increasing distortion of language (oral and written); the greed, cowardice, and hypocrisy of the upper class; the struggles of the working class against a set of constraints and injustices they don't fully understand; and the (seemingly) futile efforts of the opposition. It's nice to know that Havel... and Czechoslovakia... eventually won.
December 21, 2020
Samizdat plays are a little different than what I'm used to? Taking that into account I bump it up from three.
June 24, 2022
admittedly had to give back to the library before I read the last play but overall kinda good but also kinda mid sometimes
April 11, 2024
A really good work by Havel -- Czechia's most important person of the 20th century. Satirizes the paranoia state / fear-based systems the communists implemented brilliantly
March 26, 2025
reactionary nonsense
dnf
December 5, 2025Read the first play and loved it. I'm looking forward to reading more about the history around Vaclav Havel. I didn't want to read the entire collection of plays at this time
December 25, 2025
I'll give it an extra star for the wonderful quote "I refuse to work with paper abstractions"
November 20, 2016
I didn't like this book of plays until I understood something after the last play. That is, suffering is not a normal thing. It takes a person or entity to subject someone to it. Vaclav Havel was a revolutionary of sorts and his suffering did not go in vain. His plays reflect a kind of catharsis of reasonable rational behavior to an insufferable enemy. The pain inflicted on the Eastern block countries was a human tragedy. No less than Hitler's Germany and the sufferings of the Israelites in Babylon and Havel in a way opened the west to awareness of how an authoritarian government can dominate and pummel the will of the individual. He is a hero of freedom for leading Czechoslovakia out of the shadows of the Iron curtain.
May 9, 2008
I found the earlier two plays (The Garden Party and The Memorandum) boring at best and incomprehensible at worst; however, I'm glad I stuck with it, as The Increased Difficulty of Concentration was good, and the loosely-connected trilogy of Audience / Unveiling / Protest were really brilliant. I suspect I might have enjoyed these more if I had a better understanding of the political context and subtleties.
January 30, 2012
I kinda devoured this. I forget how much I enjoy reading plays, and Havel has a sharp wit and flair for dialogue. Good stuff. It's sort of a wonder he was able to pull off this kind of socially perceptive and critical work under the shadow of the Soviet regime. I guess that whole 'genius' tag is really appropriate here.
September 23, 2016
The Memorandum is my favorite. Havel's plays are delightfully absurd, and provide enormous insights into the Czech oppression under the Soviet Union. These plays span his entire career. I adore and respect Havel as a playwright, dissident, and politician, and these plays contribute to the complex tapestry of his life.
June 6, 2010
Havel's ability to find humor and satire in the simplest things (ie Memorandum) is delightful. His life story is so unique. How many playwrights got elected president of the country where they spent so many years as a dissident? Interesting man, interesting work.
July 27, 2010
If you're interested in the Czechoslovakia during the communist era, these plays are intriguing. I liked reading the artistic work of one of my favorite statesmen, but I still find it challenging to read plays.
December 28, 2015
These plays are enjoyable and mostly humorous, save for the horrific "Mistake" and the oddly abstract "Increased Difficulty of Concentration." My favorite was "Unveiling," the reason I picked this volume up in the first place.
July 28, 2015
Read The Garden Party and The Memorandum for my final paper in Grad School. Ended up only using hate Memorandum. LOVE that play. Would LOVE to see it revived. Garden Party was properly amusing, but The Memorandum captured my attention.
August 28, 2008
I can't get enough of this.
July 24, 2010
Very good, very memorable.
July 6, 2012
I was writing my high school senior thesis on Vaclav Havel, so I read this book. It's absolutely fantastic, in my opinion.
January 6, 2013
The "Memo" is outstanding.
October 26, 2013
Žabinec bez brčka neusmažíš!
July 30, 2015
One of the most awesome books I've read.
A poignant, humorous critique of the absurdity of Communism and bureaucracy, and the hypocrisy of the middle class.
A poignant, humorous critique of the absurdity of Communism and bureaucracy, and the hypocrisy of the middle class.
September 19, 2016
Read The Garden Party for class.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews