Theatre
The Memorandum
Vyrozumění
Václav Havel · 1965
Synopsis
The director Josef Gross finds in his mail a note written in a language he does not understand: Ptydepe, an artificial and scientific language that his deputy Jan Ballas has introduced into the department without his knowledge, to make office documents perfectly exact. Forced to sign the order imposing it, Gross tries to have his note translated and goes from the Ptydepe course to the translation centre, where nothing is translated without an authorisation he cannot obtain.
Context
The play was first performed on 26 July 1965 on the stage where the author worked, Na zábradlí, appeared in October in the journal Divadlo, then in 1966 in his first book, Protokoly. Its structure is circular: the director passes several times through the same offices. It was performed in English under the title The Memorandum from the end of the sixties; in French, it appeared under the title Le Rapport dont vous êtes l'objet, in a translation by Milan Kepel.
Who it is for
A play in which the invented language, ptydepe, takes centre stage, with its outsized words. In French from Gallimard.
Prizes and reception
Obie Award for best foreign play, presented in New York in 1968 to its English version, The Memorandum.