The University Theatre's production of \The Memorandum"" directed by Robert Skloot and written by Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, features good acting and interesting stage design. However, the satirical play is tailored to a very specific audience.
""The Memorandum"" is a social commentary that has a ""Brave New World"" and ""1984""-type feel.?? Josef Gross (R. Peter Hunt), the head of an undisclosed company, receives a memorandum written in Ptydepe, an artificial language. Gross, who does not understand Ptydepe, soon discovers that his right-hand man Jan Ballas (Peter Bissen) has implemented the use of Ptydepe within the company, without his permission. Shortly afterward, Mr. Ballas blackmails Mr. Gross into making Ptydepe the company's official language.
Once Ptydepe becomes the official language of the company, Mr. Gross has lost most of the control of the company, especially since he does not know any Ptydepe and cannot find anyone to translate the memorandum.??Mr. Ballas takes advantage of Mr. Gross' loss of power and easily tricks Mr. Gross into giving up his position. Mr. Gross does regain control of the company when Mr. Ballas realizes how confusing Ptydepe is and, more importantly, the difficulty of having documents translated from Ptydepe into English.
The intriguing storyline is aided by good individual performances.?? The acting is top-notch-Hunt perfectly portrays the sensible yet easily duped character of Mr. Gross.??Bissen provides a very accurate portrayal of the sly and overly charismatic Mr. Ballas.??Even the smaller roles are well-acted, including Mr. Gross' secretary Hanna, the school teacher and Clerk Thumb.
The unique tennis court staging of the play emphasizes the industrial, company-focused aspect of the play.??It allows the audience to simultaneously glimpse the happenings at each level of the company.??
The main downfall of the production is its length.??The student production runs two-and-a-half hours with an intermission.??The length would not be a problem except for the fact that within the last 15 minutes of the play, there are two very powerful scenes after both of which the play could end. Instead it continues on and ends after a relatively arbitrary scene.
Overall, the production of ""The Memorandum"" is well-crafted and well-performed, but only worth seeing if one is highly interested and appreciative of satirical, social commentary plays layered with very dry humor and slight sexual innuendo.??
