SOURCE: A Review of The Memorandum, in The Times, London, 29 March 1995, p. 28.

In the following evaluation of a recent British production of The Memorandum, Kingston praises the play but finds its absurdist elements dated.

Written and produced in 1965 when its author, Vaclav Havel, was a relatively free man; first staged in this country 12 years later, when he had been placed under house arrest, this famous play [The Memorandum] is being revived at a time when he appears to have become incarcerated again, although now as his country's President.

The Velvet Revolution gives a special significance to the words spoken by the typist Maria, the only decent character in the play, trying to embolden her pusillanimous boss: "I believe that if one doesn't give way, truth must always come out in the end."

It has not done so when the play ends, and, perhaps, within the multiple ironies of...