Published Online:June 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES080626
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2026.21.2.89-98
Author Name:Daniel Dabitlang M Cajee and Nabamita Das
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:89-98
This paper presents a critical reevaluation of Samuel Beckett’s debut mime, Act Without Words I (1956), through the theoretical lens of Antonin Artaud’s “Theater of Cruelty”. While Beckett’s works are frequently categorized within the “Theater of the Absurd”, this study argues that the play’s radical reduction of drama to its primal elements—movement, objects, and silence—finds its deepest resonance in Artaudian ritual. By discarding the common medium of language, Beckett creates a ritualistic space where the protagonist is subjected to a series of physical and psychological constraints dictated by an indifferent, invisible force. The analysis explores the “geometry of the desert” and the “malice of objects”—specifically the carafe, cubes, and tree—as active agents of a cosmic cruelty that Artaud defined not as physical violence, but as a “rigorous necessity”. Through a close reading of the play’s rhythmic failures and sensory stimuli, such as the shrill whistle and “dazzling light”, this paper demonstrates how Beckett’s mime functions as an Artaudian laboratory of human suffering. Ultimately, the study posits that Beckett utilizes these techniques to bypass the intellect and strike directly at the spectator’s nervous system, forcing a raw confrontation with the “cruelty” of being alive.
Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words I (1956), a one-act mime, written in French and later translated into English by the author himself, marks his debut in the genre. It was written in 1956 and performed on stage in the following year (Esslin, 1965, p. 36).