This first multi-author international anthology of Eastern European drama to appear in English includes works by five key playwrights who wrote in their respective countries before the 1989 revolutions. Edited by the acclaimed Polish theater historian and CUNY Professor Daniel Gerould, the anthology showcases plays that in his words “reveal the absurdities of an inflexible system… the ravages of communism and the traumas of its disintegration,” including Polish author Slawomir Mrozek’s Portrait – a stunning indictment of the psychology of Stalinism – as well as works by Karel Steigerwald (Czech Republic), Gyorgy Spiro (Hungary), Matei Visniec (Romania), and Dusan Jovanovic (Slovenia). The book includes a preface by theater historian Dragan Klaic, who provides a general survey of drama and theater under communism and contextualizes the individual plays.