SOURCE: "Voice from Abroad," in The New Yorker, Vol. LIX, No. 42, 5 December 1983, p. 183.

The following is a highly favorable assessment of the off-Broadway production of A Private View. Oliver asserts: "The performance of these plays, in the impeccable translation of Vera Blackwell, is itself impeccable. "

A Private View, at the Public, is a program of three brief one-act satires by the brave dissident Czech dramatist Vaclav Havel. Each of them is an encounter centering on a character called Vanek, who is plainly based upon the author himself. The first two plays are set in 1975, shortly before Havel was sent to prison for protesting to the government on behalf of human rights; the third was written in 1978, shortly after his release, when he was employed in a brewery, pushing empty barrels around.

"Interview," which opens the evening, takes place in the office of the Head Maltster, who is seated...