Dumbshow

Dumbshow

Dumbshow, also dumb show or dumb-show, is a traditional term for pantomime in drama, actions presented by actors onstage without spoken dialogue. It is similar to the masque. The term is most often used in regard to medieval drama and English Renaissance theatre, though it can apply in other pertinent contexts as well, as with the dammari pantomime of Kabuki theater.

The most famous dumbshow in English literature occurs in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III scene ii, in the play within a play staged by Prince Hamlet and the players at Elsinore Castle for King Claudius. Other instances of dumbshow are common throughout the dramatic literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A long list of English Renaissance plays include dumbshows: Gorboduc, Locrine, Antonio's Revenge, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Duchess of Malfi, The Prophetess, The Queen of Corinth, and many more — though by the Caroline era the technique of dumbshow had come to be regarded as outmoded.

Dumbshow generally passed out of fashion with the revival of English drama when the theatres re-opened in 1660 at the start of the Restoration period. Eventually, dumbshow became a risible subject: in Henry Fielding's The Author's Farce (1729), the protagonist Author intends to have his Epilogue acted in dumbshow...by a cat.

A rare modern instance of dumbshow, under highly unusual circumstances, occurred at the premiere of The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in January 1907. The tumultuous reaction of the audience forced the latter portions of the play to be performed in dumbshow. A few twentieth-century dramatists made more deliberate experiments with dumbshow. André Obey included a narrated dumbshow in his Le Viol de Lucrèce (1931). The most famous modern instance of dumbshow in theatre is to be found within Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953).

Dumbshow Theatre Company has taken its name from the idea of a fast-paced, playful piece of storytelling.

References

  • Shipley, Joseph T. Dictionary of World Literary Terms: Criticism, Forms, Technique. London, Allen & Unwin, 1955.
  • Scott, A. C. The Kabuki Theatre of Japan. London, Allen & Unwin, 1955.
  • Tucker Brooke, C. F. The Tudor Drama: A History of English National Drama to the Retirement of Shakespeare. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1911.

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  • Dumbshow —   [ dʌmʃəʊ; englisch »stumme Schau(stellung)«] die, / s, eine häufig von Musik begleitete allegorische Pantomime im englischen Drama v. a. des 16. Jahrhunderts zur Verdeutlichung von Inhalt oder Sinn des Folgenden, gespielt vor Beginn der… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • dumbshow — ► NOUN 1) gestures used to convey something without speech. 2) (especially in English drama of the 16th and 17th centuries) a part of a play acted in mime …   English terms dictionary

  • Dumbshow Theatre Company — Dumbshow are a London based theatre company composed of actors, musicians, writers, dancers and designers. Dumbshow is known for its visual creativity and colourful aesthetics. The company brings together the art of highly accomplished… …   Wikipedia

  • dumbshow — dumb show n. 1. A part of a play, especially in medieval and Renaissance drama, that is enacted without speaking. 2. Communication or acting by means of expressive gestures; pantomime. * * * …   Universalium

  • dumbshow — noun a) gesturing in an attempt to convey meaning b) mime …   Wiktionary

  • Dumbshow — Dumb|show auch: Dumb Show 〈[dʌ̣mʃoʊ] f.; Gen.: ( ) , Pl.: ( ) s〉 1. 〈allg.〉 pantomimische Einlage 2. (früher im engl. Drama) häufig der eigentl. Vorstellung vorangestellte pantomimische Erläuterung der Handlung [Etym.: <engl. dumb »stumm« +… …   Lexikalische Deutsches Wörterbuch

  • dumbshow — n. pantomime, mime show, show with bodily gestures only …   English contemporary dictionary

  • dumbshow — noun gestures used to convey something without speech. ↘(especially in English drama of the 16th and 17th centuries) a part of a play acted in mime …   English new terms dictionary

  • dumbshow — dumbˈshow noun 1. Gesture without words 2. Pantomime • • • Main Entry: ↑dumb …   Useful english dictionary

  • Masque — This article is about 16th and early 17th century court entertainments. For other uses, see Masque (disambiguation). Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the heroic torso in armour and other conventions were still employed for …   Wikipedia

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