Ever felt the bizarre urge to watch someone else struggle through bureaucratic red tape to achieve the simplest of goals?If so, the Ohio State University Theatre Company is presenting Vaclav Havel’s “The Memorandum,” a play about cutting through the red tape. It is a comedy with which many should sympathize.”The play centers around a current-day managing director of a nondescript agency who receives a memo in a completely new language,” said Sue Ott Rowland, director of “The Memorandum.” Mr. Gross, played by Chris Neher, is the unsuspecting agency director who tries to deal with the fact that this new language has been introduced into his agency. His assistant, Ms. Ballas, played by Wendy Bagger, a master’s candidate in acting at OSU, has set up this elaborate scheme behind Gross’ back in an attempt to increase the competency rate of the company. “She’s a really efficient person herself, so she tries to make her surroundings efficient too, much to the detriment of some of her co-workers,” said Bagger. “Her life centers around trying to make the office communication system more accurate.”When Gross attempts to translate the memo, he discovers that he has to go through an extremely long and frustrating process.”Simply put, he gets caught up in his company’s own red tape,” said Rowland. “He discovers that because of all this red tape, he and his company have become dehumanized. The tool in this dehumanization process is the new language.”The lesson in this play is that everyone must fight their way through some bureaucratic red tape at one point in their lives. The clue is not to become so involved in the process that you become a machine. The stage will be set to resemble a bunch of gears, symbolizing the machine-like tendencies of the company. The gears will divide the stage into three rooms: Gross’ office, a classroom where one can learn the new language, and a translation center.Gross runs into major problems when trying to get from room to room. It is much like an “American Gladiators” set-up with an obstacle course layout. Throughout the process Gross gets more and more disheveled. Some might credit this play to Havel’s own experience in prison. During its first publication in 1980, Havel, born and raised in Czechoslovakia, was entering the sixth month of a four-and-a-half year prison sentence. When writing his plays, Havel aimed his bureaucratic ridicule and silliness at the Czechoslovakian government. “The official sentence was for ‘damaging the interest of the country abroad,’ ” said Kevin Krause, unofficial research consultant for “The Memorandum.” “There actually were laws in the books against this, and since Havel co-founded the organization Charter 77 which spoke out against the Communist government, he was brought up on some trumped-up charges.””He was basically in for being a dissident to communism,” said Krause. Communist leaders banned Havel’s work, but his work was played in other countries. After being released from prison, Havel became the first elected president of The Czech Republic on Dec. 29, 1989. His plays, including his two most popular works, “The Garden Party” (1963) and “The Memorandum” (1965), have continued to be performed.”The Memorandum” is playing in the Stadium II Theatre in Drake Union from May 6-22. Tickets are sold out for the first two nights. Ticket costs are $7.50 for OSU staff, students and senior citizens, $10.50 for the general public during weekdays and matinee performances, and $11.50 for everyone during Friday and Saturday evening performances. The May 9th matinee and evening performances are being rescheduled due to conflicts with the George Strait concert. The make-up performances will be held at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday, May 23.