Very few have not heard of the Steven Spielberg film Jaws, and that is the inspiration for this play. The title, The Shark is Broken, is literally what happened during the filming: the mechanical shark broke down and halted filming.
Opening with the iconic Jaws music, this production takes place over the 16 weeks the three actors—Robert Shaw (Ian Shaw), Roy Scheider (Dan Fredenburgh) and Richard Dreyfuss (Ashley Margolis)—waited to finish filming. It is an insight into their lives and backgrounds, revealing their inner thoughts and experiences during the time they while away on the Orca, playing shove-penny, drinking and other pastimes.
While dark in parts, it has many lighter, humorous moments with the audience laughing out loud: “who is going to be talking about Jaws in 50 years’ time?”, “there will never be a president more immoral than Nixon” got a particularly loud laugh. Much humour is also derived from Shaw's merciless taunting of the spliff-smoking inept Dreyfuss; indeed, Scheider often has to interfere to calm them both down, almost coming to blows.
There is particularly much insight into Shaw's life. He wishes he would be remembered for his writing rather than his acting, maybe explaining where his son gets it from. He spouts many witticisms, “you know what W C Fields said about water: avoid it, fish f**k in it!” and when asked why he drank so much, said, “because we’re English and we need it to cope with the climate”. After quoting a Shakespeare sonnet, he says, “I wrote that when I was five”. His alcoholic father committing suicide at 57 would naturally appear to have had a marked impression on his attitude to life. Dreyfuss and Scheider also reveal much of their background.
So, three men in a boat interacting. The boat, having mainly four sections, deck, cabin, hold and upper section, is well designed (Duncan Henderson) with the space expertly used. The wraparound backdrop to this adds enormously to the time and mood, the water constantly moving with superb video design (Nina Dunn). This is also complemented with expert lighting (Jon Clark).
In 2022, the original director, Guy Masterson, won a Laurence Olivier Award, then did an 18-week run on Broadway in 2023 and it is still going strong touring. The original idea came to Shaw when he read his father’s diary in 2017 and jotted down some notes which were hidden in a drawer for years. Talking to friends later, they convinced him it was worth pursuing, hence the play.
It is an absolute delight to spend an evening in a theatre watching a play, especially about real people, that is not only well acted, designed, lit, directed and produced, but entertaining humorous and informative with the 90 minutes flying over. Enjoyable and interesting on many levels.