Act Without Words is a play that belongs to the realists as well as the absurdist.

As with many of Beckett’s works, ultimately the overarching theme is the utter absurdity of existence. What could be more absurd than being thrown into a world to face the same challenges every day with the same illusion of having choice provided for you that are really no choices at all in a situation where it seems those around you just don’t even seem to speak the same language as you? About the only thing more absurd than the situated faced by the fellow there in the desert is…just about any employee’s day at work in a face bureaucratic system or the hell of having to come home to a family already firmly ensconced in their ridiculous expectations of you. One man’s desert with no chance to get a drink of water is another man’s absurd extrapolation of life, or so Beckett suggests.