The playwrights who are associated with the Theatre of the Absurd did not form an organized movement, but nevertheless one can extrapolate specific criteria for absurdist drama. According to Martin Esslin these are: mechanistic actions, devaluation of language, circular structure, lack of solution for a problematic situation. The Theatre of the Absurd has been dealt with primarily as a Western European phenomenon, usually focusing on Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett.

Yet in this play Havel applies the basic absurdist construction to express the dehumanization process in a socialist society. I will argue that Vyrozumeni does belong to the Theatre of the Absurd, as it for fills all the above mentioned criteria that defines absurdist drama.

Mechanistic actions

One of the most obvious...