The Memo at The VORTEX

THE MEMO
BY VÁCLAV HAVEL
JULY 21-29, 2023

Summer Youth Theatre

8:00 p.m. | Sunday 6:00 p.m.

ASL Interpretation Saturday July 22, 8:00 p.m.

ABOUT THE SHOW

The VORTEX’s award-winning Summer Youth Theatre presents The Memo, by Václav Havel, July 21-29, 2023, for 6 performances. Jelena Stojiljkovic Rhynes directs this sharp satire with a cast of young professionals, ages 13-17. The Memo parodies the merry-go-round of governmental bureaucracy in communist Czechoslovakia and remains relevant to our lives today. 

Václav Havel wrote The Memo in 1965 as an ironic dissent against communist rule. Despite its veiled themes, the play was approved by government censors and published. 

This 2012 translation by Paul Wilson brings contemporary resonance to Havel’s play, also known as The Memorandum. Havel was eventually imprisoned for his political activities from 1979-1983. He went on to become the final President of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and then the first democratically-elected President of the Czech Republic in 1993. The Memo is broadly considered Václav Havel’s masterpiece.