The Shark Is Broken – The Lyric Theatre, The Lowry – 5th February 2025

When it was announced that The Shark is Broken was coming to The Lowry last summer, tickets were booked instantly. Then we had to wait for February to arrive. It felt like a long wait. I am a late comer to Jaws. I watched it for the first time during the lockdown in 2020. I enjoyed it way more than I expected and have wanted to see this play ever since.

The play is a kind of love letter from a son to his father, full of affection but acknowledging his flaws as well. It’s important to remember that although it’s based on real life events the dialogue is fictionalised and comes from the point of view of just one of the actors portrayed and how he perceived those around him. The programme for the show mentions that the writer had read his father’s drinking diaries.

The cast are very good at capturing the real life actors. Ian Shaw (the writer) is truly uncanny as his father Robert. Dan Fredenburgh is a believable Roy Shneider and Ashley Margolis makes the part of Richard Dreyfuss his own. Utilising only one set, The Orca, and a projected backdrop the staging is fairly simple but effective. Bruce the shark breaks down off stage and the cut away of the boat is the scene of several vignettes of the time spent waiting for him to be fixed so filming can continue. The screens for the backdrop mostly just feature the ocean, but there are appearances of a shark fin, a sailing boat and a well-timed shooting star!

Most of the show is funny, with Shaw relentlessly teasing Dreyfuss, and Schneider stuck in the middle. There are knowing nods to the modern day, particularly when discussing Nixon and the then current trend for disaster movies. There’s even a nod to how different things were in the novel on which Jaws was based.

One of the running themes is the difference between the three actors. They are from different eras, different backgrounds and different disciplines. This leads to some disagreements, but ultimately to the knowledge that things change and move on in the film industry. From our viewpoint in time, Dreyfuss is now the wisened older actor who probably has new young upstarts to contend with and to pass his experience onto.

The theme of fathers and addiction takes us to some very poignant places amidst the humour and bickering. Shaw (Sr) talks about alcoholism in regards to his own father who was addicted to drink and took his own life when Shaw was only 12 years old. It resonates with the knowledge that the actor Shaw (Jr) is playing the father that he himself lost before he got into double figures age-wise. This moment in the play is akin to the dramatic change of tone in the film when Quint gives the speech about the Indianapolis.

During the play that speech is ridiculed in its original form, rewritten, flubbed extensively and finally recreated in all its glory at the very end of the performance. A lovely little extra for the fans of the film. (This is where the well timed shooting star comes into play too).

This is a love letter to a film that became a classic as well as to a father. It’s affectionate, funny, moving and warm. If you get a chance to see it, do.