dumbshow
Wordless theatrical performance
Dumbshow is a part of a play performed entirely through gestures and action, without words—pantomime within a larger dramatic work.
The term appears most often in discussions of Renaissance theater, where dumbshows previewed or summarized plot events.
By extension, any exaggerated silent communication: He made a dumbshow of checking his watch.
Wordless expressive performer
- charadeAbsurd or obvious pretense
- tableauStriking pictorial arrangement
- mummeryInsincere theatrical performance
- harlequinadeComic pantomime with stock characters
gesticulation · enactment · mimicry · slapstick · clowning · buffoonery · commedia · Pierrot
Introductory literary section
- inductionFormal admission process
- ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
- JacobeanPertaining to King James's reign
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
dramaturgical · allegory · foreshadowing · exposition · spectacle · pageantry · thespian · performance
Lacking spoken content
- muteWithout voice or sound
- speechlessUnable to talk
- voicelessHaving no voice
- unspokenNot verbally expressed
soundless · noiseless · hushed · tacit · inaudible · gestural · nonverbal · inarticulate
Communicate through body movements
- signalingConveying information nonverbally
- beckoningGesturing for approach
- flourishTo grow vigorously
- indicativeServing as a sign
mime
Wordless expressive performer
- charadeAbsurd or obvious pretense
- tableauStriking pictorial arrangement
- mummeryInsincere theatrical performance
harlequinade · gesticulation · enactment · mimicry · slapstick · clowning · buffoonery · commedia · Pierrot · masque
prologue
Introductory literary section
- inductionFormal admission process
- ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
- JacobeanPertaining to King James's reign
Hamlet · dramaturgical · allegory · foreshadowing · exposition · spectacle · pageantry · thespian · performance · troupe
wordless
Lacking spoken content
- muteWithout voice or sound
- speechlessUnable to talk
- voicelessHaving no voice
unspoken · soundless · noiseless · hushed · tacit · inaudible · gestural · nonverbal · inarticulate · still
gesticulate
Communicate through body movements
- Victorian entertainmentvaudeville, music hall, minstrel show, pantomime, melodrama
- verse dramadramatic verse, Greek tragedy, classical tragedy, Shakespearean tragedy, Elizabethan drama
dumbshowdialogue
Spoken exchange between parties
speech · words · monologue · declamation · oration
dumbshowdirect address
Speaking to someone named
declaration · proclamation · announcement · plain speech · explication
dumbbell, dumbfounded, dumbfound, dumber, dumbest, dumbness, dumbly, dumbed, dumbing