This paper examines the mediality of silence in theatrical practice, arguing that the absence of speech functions as a constitutive, not merely negative, element of stage arts. Tracing historical and theoretical shifts—from Noverre’s pantomimic codification and the dance’s enforced muteness through Cunningham and Lepecki’s redefinitions, to modern and postdramatic experiments by Müller, Beckett, Jelinek and Sarah Kane—the study interrogates how silence is inscribed in texts, typographies and performance conventions. It analyses the paradoxes of notated silence (stage directions, punctuation, spacing), the destabilisation of the text–performance divide, and the practical impossibility of producing “pure” silence in live contexts (illustrated via Forced Entertainment). The paper situates silence as an operative, performative medium that reconfigures authorship, agency and audience reception.