The Shark Is Broken At The Rep

The year is 1974. A young, exciting prospect is directing his latest film, a dramatisation of the popular Peter Benchley novel Jaws. But things are not going to plan. The shark, the real star of the film, is broken. This leaves his trio of lead actors, the reliable Roy Scheider, the young hotshot Richard Dreyfuss, and the legendary hellraiser Robert Shaw, with lots of time on their hands. And that is not a good thing. Left with nothing to do but play cards, gamble, drink and argue, the relationship between Shaw and Dreyfuss turns increasingly fractious, with Scheider forced to play referee. They need to finish this film, one way or another, before the film finishes one of them…

This is the premise of the brilliant ‘The Shark is Broken‘, which opened at Birmingham’s Rep Theatre last night to a standing ovation. Co-Written and performed by Robert Shaw’s actor son Ian Shaw, along with Dan Fredenburgh and Ashley Margolis, this is a play that gives a brilliant birds eye view of what went on behind the scenes of one of the greatest films of all time. It delves deep into the personalities of the protagonists, and shows why the finished film could be seen as a miracle when you look at what actually happened during the filming. It is an amazing achievement that could almost be classed as cinematic as you genuinely feel yourself bobbing on the waves of the ocean around Martha’s Vineyard. This is a play that is totally unmissable, even if you are not a major fan of the original film.

The beauty at the heart of this play are the performances. Nothing much happens, as all the action is set on the small boat that takes Brody, Quint and Hooper out in search of the monster. We see Robert Shaw as Quint battling against the poor scripting of the famous Indianapolis scene (1100 men went into the water…), and the excitable, often wired Richard Dreyfuss, playing Hooper and alternating between egotism and self doubt. In the midst of it all is Scheider, quiet, practical and calm in the midst of any crisis, he is literally holding everything together, just as his heroic Brody takes a stand.

The performances are absolutely impeccable. Ian Shaw is pitch perfect as his own father Robert, and totally brings poignancy to the role, especially when he expresses the will to live longer than his own father, something that did not happen. You believe that Ian is Robert, who you believe is Quint, and it is an extraordinary labour of love that makes you laugh, and makes you cry. Ashley Margolis could be Richard Dreyfuss, he has his endless energy and almost hyper active personality nailed on perfectly, and is able to switch from ego and almost draining energy, to vulnerability in the same scene. It is quite a performance. Dan Fredenburgh brings the quiet authority and gravitas to Scheider, the only person who could’ve stopped Shaw from killing Dreyfuss, he is the link between the old style of Shaw and the new young Bucks like Dreyfuss. This is a cast that is just perfect.

The script is sharp and bright, quickly turning from hilarious one liners to poignant speeches, often in the same scene. The use of modern hindsight raises many laughs (there’ll never be a President more crooked than Richard Nixon for instance, and when Dreyfuss mentions that Spielburg’s next film is about Aliens and Shaw explodes, what next, dinosaurs?).

The Shark may well be broken, but this play is anything but. It is flawless.

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