THE SHARK IS BROKEN is about to tour the UK & Eire in 2025.
FADE IN: The open ocean, 1974. Filming is delayed…once more. The lead actors—theatre veteran Robert Shaw and younger Hollywood hotshots Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider—are crammed right into a too-small boat, completely on the mercy of foul climate and a defective mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide, and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that simply would possibly result in cinematic magic…if it doesn’t sink all of them.
Step aboard the Orca and into THE SHARK IS BROKEN, a “profound dive behind the scenes of the making of Jaws” (The Day by day Telegraph, ★★★★). This Olivier Award-nominated new play is “hilariously good and pure genius” raves the Sunday Specific (★★★★★) and stars Ian Shaw (Battle Horse, Frequent) as his father, Robert Shaw.
Ian Shaw mentioned “In 2017, I learn a ingesting diary my father saved, which I discovered painful and really courageous. I had a moustache for one more position I used to be enjoying. Out of the blue I noticed I appeared like Quint. We had been the identical age. So I sketched out some concepts for a play. I shoved it in a drawer, pondering it was too loopy to truly do. A few years in the past, I learn in regards to the extraordinary difficulties that they had making JAWS, and it occurred to me that there was an fascinating story behind the scenes of one in every of cinema’s most legendary films.
I discussed it to 2 of my associates, David Mounfield and Duncan Henderson, who thought the thought was adequate for them to co-produce on the Edinburgh Competition Fringe. Then I spoke to a author pal, Joseph Nixon, who additionally thought it had legs and could possibly be one thing lots of people would discover entertaining. I all the time liked the movie, it feels burned into my DNA. And who doesn’t like a peek into a non-public world? So we wrote it collectively. Thanks to my spouse Rachel and my household for all their help and love throughout that tough course of.
The play is devoted to the great David Mounfield and Joseph’s father Michael Nixon, each of whom sadly died in 2020. It’s a farewell to them, and naturally, my wonderful father. Thanks to them for all of the love and laughter they gave us.”
THE SHARK IS BROKEN celebrates film historical past and peeks on the uneven waters behind Hollywood’s first blockbuster.
Brief tempers. Brief 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 Could
BIRMINGHAM
The Rep
Tue 6 – Sat 10 Could
DUBLIN
Gaiety Theatre
Tue 13 – Sat 17 Could
