Mrożek, Sławomir

Mrożek, Sławomir (1930– ), Polish playwright, who with Witkiewicz and Gombrowicz represents in Polish drama the Theatre of the Absurd, though with more political content than is usual with exponents of this style. In 1964 two one-act plays, What a Lovely Dream! and Let's Have Fun! (both 1962), were seen in London during the first World Theatre Season. Mrożek's longer plays, which include The Turkey Cock (1961) and The Enchanted Night (1963), culminated in the world-famous satire on totalitarianism, Tango, produced first in Belgrade in 1965, and later the same year in Warsaw by Axer. The first modern Polish play to make a decided impact on the theatres of Western Europe and America, it was seen in London in 1966 in an RSC production directed by Trevor Nunn, and in New York in 1969. In 1968 Mrożek went into voluntary exile, but most of his recent plays have been seen in Poland, The Hunchback (1976) having been given its first production simultaneously in Cracow and Łódź. Later plays include Émigrés (1974; NY, 1982), about the response of exiles to freedom, and A Summer's Day (London, 1985), in which two men contemplate suicide, one because of failure, the other because success has left him no further goals.