Polish satirical, anti-communist playwright Slawomir Mrozek buried with honours in Krakow

WARSAW, Poland – A funeral service is being held for Slawomir Mrozek, a dissident playwright many considered Poland’s greatest writer for the stage.

Residents waited in the rain Tuesday in the southern city of Krakow, where Mrozek’s career began, to sign a condolence book. A horse-drawn hearse then took the urn to its resting place at St. Peter and Paul church.

Mrozek made his name with surrealist plays, notably the 1964 “Tango,” which indirectly ridiculed communism. “Tango” and some of his other plays were staged in London and Off Broadway.

A communist party member at first, he was stripped of his passport after criticizing Poland’s participation in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

He lived in Italy, France and Mexico, before returning to Poland in 1996.

Mrozek died Aug. 15 in Niece.