Is the dumb show, that recurrent standby of Renaissance drama, an archaic convention made even less viable by the prevalence of naturalism – or a purposefully different stage ‘language’ with distinctive functions, which directors misinterpret at their peril? In this article, Katherine M. Carey explores the use of the two dumb shows in Webster's The White Devil (1612), relating this both to the new historicist understanding of the ‘salutary anxiety’ of Jacobean society and to the concept of ‘remediation’ explored in the work of Bolter and Grusin. She ends with a discussion of the dumb shows in three recent productions of the play. Katherine M. Carey has recently completed her doctoral dissertation in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia, USA.