TLS, one page, 8.25 x 10.75, October 13, 1955. Addressed from Paris, a letter to British ballet dancer and actor Deryk Mendel, in full: “As I have not heard from you I take it that my Frollo scenario is of no use to you. This I can very well understand. I should be grateful if you would let me have it back.” Beckett adds a postscript: “I called round at your place about 10 days ago, but was not fortunate enough to find you in.” In fine condition.
Deryk Mendel (1920-2013) was an intriguing figure of wartime and post-war ballet in England, who, by the mid-fifties, was focussing on choreography, acting, and appearing in cabaret at the Fontaine des Quatre Saisons in Paris. For this venue, he successfully developed a mime character, ‘Frollo’ (from Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and then, following its success, he was asked to perform another piece for the cabaret. He wrote to a number of up-and-coming writers, including Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, asking them to provide a scenario for his future work. Beckett sent his partner, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil to see Mendel perform in 1955. Stalled in his writing for Fin de partie, and on Deschevaux-Dumesnil’s recommendation, Beckett took up the challenge to create a mime for Mendel. The result was Acte sans paroles.
Beckett wrote to Pamela Mitchell on August 8, 1955, that he had written ‘a ten-minute scenario for a mute white clown, gruesomely gloomy,' for possible production at the Fontaine des 4 Saisons. The mime, subtitled ‘Mime for One Player,’ was acted by Mendel, with music by John Beckett, Beckett’s cousin. The collaboration went well - Beckett seemed heartened that during his cousin’s visit to Paris in December 1955 to work on the mime, ‘John got down some good music. Mendel promises to do the job very well.’ In fact, the mime was never performed at the Fontaine venue because of the lack of space and the complex flying requirements for all the props. Eventually, it was performed along with Fin de partie at the première at the Royal Court Theatre in 1957 (and reprised that same year at the Studio of the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris), with Beckett declaring ‘Deryk Mendel is absolutely remarkable.’
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