ABSTRACT
The shark has been represented on the stage from the sixteenth century through to the present. It has played many parts, from that of the vicious drama critic, the serial stalker of sailors, a snatcher up of unconsidered trifles and, basically, the prime suspect for any missing bodies at sea. A vital aspect of the shark in its more tragic parts as pirate or predator is that it remains unseen on stage, as a discernible model for another character or by way of analogy or metaphor. In its role as sexy seducer it is even more important that it is discreetly embedded in a monologue. As we will see, the versatile shark is also capable of shouting out conservation issues from the fish counter. This chapter explores the use of ‘shark’ in drama from the sixteenth through to the twenty-first centuries, noting the ways in which its role has become more emotionally complex.
