‘Memorandum’ Makes a Note of Office Hell

In the Odyssey Theatre’s seamless production of Vaclav Havel’s satire “The Memorandum,” director Jessica Kubzansky creates an alarmingly recognizable, absurdist twilight zone. Although Havel wrote of a business company in 1965 Czechoslovakia, the madness of bureaucracy and its dehumanizing effects still resonate.

Scenic designer Michael Marlowe uses a jumble of black letters on a medium blue background to decorate the walls, floors and the backs of moving set pieces. The pattern makes about as much sense as the titular memorandum, which is written in Pytdepe, an artificial language meant for official in-company correspondence.

The managing director, Josef--played with earnest conviction by John Ross Clark--is the sane voice lost among cartoonish underlings as he fights the attempt by his deputy director, Jan (Michael David Edwards), to impose the use of Pytdepe throughout the office.

Marlowe and costume designer Audrey Fisher have given this production a look that hovers between past and present--with manual typewriters, plastic shoe covers and work smocks--tinged with otherworldliness. Under Kubzansky’s direction, this isn’t a contest between good and evil. Clark’s Josef is weak-willed; Edwards’ Jan is selfishly ambitious. The ensemble deftly suggests self-involvement without malice, even in moments of tastefully displayed lechery.

According to the program notes, Kubzansky originally thought to set this production in the IRS. Yet by keeping it in an unnamed company, she cannily encompasses a broader spectrum of bureaucratic hell.

BE THERE

“The Memorandum,” Odyssey Theater, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m., except for 2 p.m. Oct. 31 and Nov. 14. Ends Dec. 5. $18.50 to $22.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.