In Richmond as a part of a UK Tour comes Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon’s West End hit of 2021-2022 about the shenanigans during the filming of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS.  It is a marvellous comedy written by an insider who as a child was taken to the set of JAWS. 

I remember that during the Studio Ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood, there was this rather disappointing mock up of the great white shark.  Maybe this was one of the three animatronic sharks named Bruce, which the three actors talk about in the play?  The origin of the name Bruce was that of Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer, a metaphor we can all identify with except the lawyers of course!  

The mechanical shark was designed in a freshwater tank but worked less well in salt water and the scenario for this play is three actors sitting around while the crew try to fix Bruce. 

Robert Shaw’s son, Ian Shaw has written this richly comic play with Joseph Nixon and in The Shark is Broken, he plays his own father.  The resemblance between father and son is remarkable, especially in profile, and in voice where it is uncanny. Robert Shaw in the film plays Quint a shark hunter brought in by the town of Amity Island to restore confidence in their summer beach trade.  Roy Scheider (Dan Fredenburgh) played the Chief of Police of Amity and Richard Dreyfuss (Ashley Margolis) was a marine biologist.  The actors were the three Rs. All three actors are so excellent and believable and many of the incidents in this play are based on records of fact.