The Memorandum

Václav Havel's mischievous 1965 satire, about an inscrutable language devised by authorities to make office drones’ lives hell, contains many dark delights (think Brazil meets Office Space), and the Actors Company Theatre gives it an efficient and handsome staging. But the production's overall tone misses the absurdist menace necessary for such Kafka-esque comedy.—Garrett Eisler