I yell “barracuda”, everybody says, “Huh? What…?” I say, “Brody, Hooper and Quint”, and everyone knows instantly I’m talking about the film “Jaws.”
It’s widely known that the film’s production was beset by technical issues – not the least of which was the recurring failure of the mechanical sharks. Nearly as infamous, was the clashing of egos of the movie’s human stars.
Those elements are at the heart of “The Shark is Broken”, a stage play written by British playwrights Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw. That’s Shaw, as in the son of late actor Robert Shaw.
It’s the latest production of Showtimers Community Theatre in Roanoke.
Corey M. Stewart is directing the production and sets the premise, “This play is not necessarily about the making of “Jaws.” It’s about the waiting – during the making of “Jaws!” “What they sign on for – 55 days of filming, is now 80 of filming, is now 120 days of filming. There are stories about how the script is being written during the filming of this movie and it’s crazy! They say, ‘you don’t shoot a blockbuster movie without a script.’ But because the shark wasn’t working, they utilized this kind of dead time to pull real life from the actors.”
The play’s three actors portray Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw, focusing on these lulls in production – imagined by playwright Ian Shaw, greatly based on his father’s memoirs, his stories told to family and friends, and Ian’s own research over the years.
An exchange from the show sheds light on Robert Shaw's doubts about the film's lasting value:
Shaw: Aw, this isn’t a movie. This is a trifle, an entertainment.
Dreyfuss: You know, art and entertainment aren’t mutually exclusive.
Scheider: You know, he’s got a point there. I mean, come on, take Casablanca. You like Casablanca, right Robert?
Shaw: 'Kiss me! Kiss me as if it were the last time!' Yes, of course I like Casablanca, Roy. It’s one of Bogey’s finest.
Scheider: Well, did they know they were making a great movie? Or were they just making a trifle?
Shaw: I get what you’re saying, lads. I still think this film is just destined for the dust bin of history.
Brody’s famous line is “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” But this show won’t need a bigger stage. In fact, it’s very much a production that seems tailor-made for the intimacy of a stage such as Showtimers.
Stewart agrees with the assessment, “Absolutely! Any show that has the three-character trope, you can do on a smaller stage, but because this story has such a mythology behind it, you can absolutely put it on a large stage and still have that same scope and breadth. But you can also condense it and make it look like it’s your home box office. Showtimers kind of affords us this smaller kind of space. That audience being right there, it really will feel like you’re on the Orca with the three actors.”
Some of the scenes from the film are recreated on stage, including Shaw’s show-stopping monologue telling of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
“The Shark is Broken" runs from February 26 through March 8. Click here for Showtimers Theatre ticket information.
