Сөзсіз Әрекет I: Экзистенциалдық трагедия немесе Талқантас аңызы

Act Without Words I is a short play by Samuel Beckett. It is a mime, Beckett's first (followed by Act Without Words II). Like many of Beckett's works, the play was originally written in French (Acte sans paroles I), being translated into English by Beckett himself. It was written in 1956 following a request from the dancer Deryk Mendel and first performed on 3 April 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. On that occasion it followed a performance of Endgame. The original music to accompany the performance was written by composer John S. Beckett, Samuel's cousin, who would later collaborate with him on the radio play Words and Music.

On one level Act Without Words I “seems a behaviourist experiment within a classical myth”, that of Tantalus, who stood in a pool of water which receded every time he bent to drink it, and stood under a fruit tree which raised its branches every time he reached for food. In the 1930s Beckett read Wolfgang Köhler’s book, The Mentality of Apes about the colony of apes in Tenerife, where experiments were conducted in which the apes also placed cubes on top of another in order to reach a banana” and is clearly referenced in this piece. Tantalus was punished for stealing ambrosia and nectar. It is not certain that the man is being punished for a crime other than that of existing in the first place. The situation is similar to that of the narrator in Beckett's 1955 The Expelled, whose story begins with him being jettisoned from the place he was living (“The fall was not serious. Even as I fell I heard the door slam, which brought me a little comfort [for] that meant they were not pursuing me down the street with a stick, to beat me.”) “into an environment where he cannot exist but cannot escape Whereas Godot’s existence remains uncertain, here an external force exists” “represented by a sharp, inhuman, disembodied whistle” (‘Throwness’).” Heidegger is clearly using the expression metaphorically as is Beckett; the man is expelled from a womb like condition, from non being into being. This is not the first time Beckett has used light to symbolise existence: “They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.” The protagonist is nameless, he is Everyman. “As Beckett told Barney Rosset, his longtime U. S. publisher, in 1957: he is just ‘human meat or bones.’”

When he first looks at his hands it is “”as though [he is] noticing his own body for the first time Having become cognisant of his Dasein [he is willing to] accept the presence of various Seiendes”, as Heidegger calls existing objects, that start to appear beginning with the tree. When the scissors arrive the man begins to trim his nails “for no other reason than the sudden availability of the correct object. The scissors of course could stand for any other useful object of daily living such as a house or car, objects whose "thereness" is most often taken for granted.” “But within this obvious, traditional ending, Beckett works his consummate skill, for the real play begins with its terminus. The climactic ending of the mime may signify not a pathetic defeat, but a conscious rebellion, man’s deliberate refusal to obey. Lucky has finally turned on Pozzo. Ironically then, the protagonist is most active when inert, and his life acquires meaning at its end. In this refusal, this cutting of the umbilical rope, a second birth occurs, the birth of Man.” It is a victory of sorts, albeit a hollow one.

A filmed version of Act Without Words I was directed by Karel Reisz for the 2001 Beckett on Film project, with music specially composed by Michael Nyman.