It is 1975. There are three actors squashed into the cabin of a small boat waiting for a malfunctioning shark to work so they can complete a shoot already 100 days over schedule.
It is a piece of well-established cinema history that the filming of Jaws (or ‘Flaws’ as it became known to the production crew) was beset with technical problems and budget over-runs associated with shooting in the ocean with an untested mechanical shark. Less well known is the added stress caused by sea sickness, last-minute casting and overnight script changes.
But the main focus of The Shark is Broken is the relationships between the three main characters: Robert Shaw (playing Quint), Roy Scheider (Brody) and Richard Dreyfuss (Hooper). Shaw is an established Shakespearean actor, but an irascible alcoholic who constantly needles the younger, brash Dreyfuss. Played by his son and co-writer of the play, Ian Shaw, the younger actor’s physical similarity to his father is astonishing. However, it is in his portrayal of his father, both in the writing and performing, that we see the awe and honesty with which he regards his father. We get a peek under the rug to see the older actor’s vulnerabilities, not least acknowledging the void caused by losing his own father aged 12. This is made ever more poignant as Robert died when Ian was, heart-breakingly, only 8.
Ashley Margolis inhabits the character of the young Dreyfuss: brash and confident, part of an ambitious new generation with their own addictions (in this case drugs), needling the dismissive older actor about his prospects of a Shakespearean role. Dan Fredenburgh (Scheider) submits to the role of peacemaker, barely able to mention his own credits and Oscar nomination, in order to smooth the path between the other two and ease the film to a peaceful completion.
Duncan Henderson’s design showing the boat in cross section across the stage is very effective but oddly static. Despite this, a video of the ocean with occasional glimpses of yachts interrupting the shoot is stretched across the entire backdrop of the set placed in what appears to be an unspooled reel of 35mm film, pointing to the cinematic origins of this short play. This allows for the small cast to board and leave the boat, and the claustrophobic cabin enhances the friction between the three main characters.
The notable omission, as in the film, is the shark itself, occasionally hinted at by a fin in the video backdrop. The shark is more evocatively suggested by the ominous music, again as in the film. But, unlike the film, this play is about the characters of the actors. And here, writers Shaw and Nixon produce a tender and honest portrayal of a huge actor with even greater flaws of his own but one sorely missed by his young son, even now over 40 years after his death.