THE SHARK IS BROKEN is set to tour the UK & Ireland in 2025.
FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed…again. The lead actors—theatre veteran Robert Shaw and young Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider—are crammed into a too-small boat, entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic…if it doesn’t sink them all.
Step aboard the Orca and into THE SHARK IS BROKEN, a “profound dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws” (The Daily Telegraph, ★★★★). This Olivier Award-nominated new play is “hilariously brilliant and pure genius” raves the Sunday Express (★★★★★) and stars Ian Shaw (War Horse, Common) as his father, Robert Shaw.
Ian Shaw said “In 2017, I read a drinking diary my father kept, which I found painful and very brave. I had a moustache for another role I was playing. Suddenly I realized I looked like Quint. We were the same age. So I sketched out some ideas for a play. I shoved it in a drawer, thinking it was too crazy to actually do. Many years ago, I read about the extraordinary difficulties they had making JAWS, and it occurred to me that there was an interesting story behind the scenes of one of cinema’s most legendary movies.
I mentioned it to two of my friends, David Mounfield and Duncan Henderson, who thought the idea was good enough for them to co-produce at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Then I spoke to a writer friend, Joseph Nixon, who also thought it had legs and could be something a lot of people would find entertaining. I always loved the film, it feels burned into my DNA. And who doesn’t like a peek into a private world? So we wrote it together. Thank you to my wife Rachel and my family for all their support and love during that difficult process.
The play is dedicated to the wonderful David Mounfield and Joseph’s father Michael Nixon, both of whom sadly died in 2020. It is a farewell to them, and of course, my amazing father. Thank you to them for all the love and laughter they gave us.”
THE SHARK IS BROKEN celebrates movie history and peeks at the choppy waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster.
Short tempers. Short circuits. 95 minutes, no intermission.
UK & IRELAND TOUR 2025
OXFORD
Oxford Playhouse
Thu 23 – Sat 25 January
MALVERN
Malvern Theatres
Tue 28 January – Sat 1 February
SALFORD
The Lowry
Tue 4 – Sat 8 February
RICHMOND
Richmond Theatre
Mon 17 – Sat 22 February
NOTTINGHAM
Theatre Royal
Wed 26 Feb – Sat 1 Mar
BATH
Theatre Royal
Mon 3 – Sat 8 March
CANTERBURY
Marlowe Theatre
Tue 11 – Sat 15 March
NEWCASTLE
Theatre Royal
Tue 18 – Sat 22 March
GUILDFORD
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Mon 24 – Sat 29 March
PLYMOUTH
Theatre Royal
Mon 31 March – Sat 5 April
BRIGHTON
Theatre Royal
Mon 7 – Sat 12 April
CHELTENHAM
Everyman Theatre
Tue 22 – Sat 26 April
POOLE
Lighthouse
Tue 29 April – Sat 3 May
BIRMINGHAM
The Rep
Tue 6 – Sat 10 May
DUBLIN
Gaiety Theatre
Tue 13 – Sat 17 May
