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Written
in French in 1956, Act Without Words I is a mime, as the title suggests. A man sits in
a desert and struggles to reach a flask of water and other objects, which
remain stubbornly out of reach. Yet despite his continual disappointment,
he does not give up. There is no escape from the playing area – he
is 'immediately flung back' when he attempts to enter the wings. Karel Reisz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1926 and
educated in Britain. He was the first programme director of the National
Film Theatre in the early 1950s. He has directed many films including:
Night Must Fall (1963) with Albert Finney;
Isadora (1967) with Vanessa
Redgrave, Jason Robards and James Fox; The
Gambler (1973-4) with James Caan; The
French Lieutenant's Woman (1980) with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons;
Sweet Dreams (1985-6) with Jessica Lang
and Ed Harris; and Everybody Wins
(1990) with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. He has also directed many productions
on stages across the US, Great Britain and Ireland. 'As
always with Beckett, in the agony there is pity, understanding and humanity.
By using repetition, Beckett was trying to make sense of his own experience
of the world. Right or wrong doesn't come into it.'
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