The paper studies how the dramatic and theatrical works of the Hungarian Imre Dobozy (1917–1983), and József Darvas (1912–1973), and the Czech Václav Havel (1936–2011) have been canonised—in the case of the Hungarian writers within Hungary and in the case of Havel both within Hungary and partly internationally—in connection with their political activities. All three authors were mentioned in the two-volume Hungarian publication of The World History of Theatre (1986). Both Dobozy and Darvas are represented by a play that depicts 1956 as a counter-revolution. These plays were repeatedly published in high school anthologies representing “Contemporary Hungarian Drama.” They had a few premieres in 1958-1960 in professional Hungarian theatres. Both authors received the highest cultural award for them, the Kossuth Prize. The rest has been silence. In the same handbook, Václav Havel was mentioned on a list of Czech dramatists. His plays soon reached the Hungarian stage and publishing, as well as the US and the UK, among other Western countries. From 1969 to 1989 he was a banned author both in his home country and in Hungary. The collapse of the communist regime lifted Havel into the position of president of the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, his plays were continuously produced in his homeland but rarely in Hungary. How has being a political dissent and later the president influenced Havel’s position in the canon?