Polish Playwright Slawomir Mrozek Passes Away at 83

According to published reports, Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek died on August 15, 2013. He was 83. Mrozek started out as a journalist and cartoonist and eventually went on to become one of Poland's leading playwrights and political critics.

Mrozek's most renowned play, Tango, debuted in Warsaw in 1964. The three-act drama was produced in London two years later in 1966, directed by Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was then seen off-Broadway at the Pocket Theater in 1969.

His other plays include The Policemen, produced off-Broadway in 1961, Vatzlav, seen at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1970, Emigres, staged at BAM in 1979, and Alpha, which was produced at the LA Theater Center in 1986. Mrozek's plays Striptease and Out at Sea were staged at La MaMa in New York City in 2004.

Mrozek also wrote a book a short fiction in Polish called Elephant, which was later translated into English. Because the collection was said to undermine Communist authorities in Poland, Mrozek left the country in 1963 and moved to Italy, followed by France. His work was banned in Poland and his passport revoked after he wrote an open letter disproving Poland's connections to the Soviet Union and the invasion of Czechoslavakia.