This book is a timely reminder of how theatre can not just entertain, but enlighten and transform us too. The five plays it collects are wonderfully theatrical, moving fluidly from absurdism to tragedy, and from satire to the darkly comic. The translators give us versions that will stimulate and delight readers. performers and audiences. And by giving voice to the 'forgotten playwrights of Central Europe', they also deeply enrich our understanding of the relationship between art, ethics and politics in Europe - both in the past and the present.