The making of “Jaws” was almost as dramatic as the movie itself. When the mechanical shark used in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film refused to work properly in the ocean, production slowed to a crawl. The actors were left waiting aboard the fishing boat Orca, with little to do but talk, argue, drink and endure one another.
That stretch of downtime is the setting for “The Shark Is Broken,” the first production in Thingamajig Theatre Company’s 2026-2027 fall and winter season.
The play will open Oct. 9 at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts and continue through Nov. 15.
Directed by Laura Moore, the production stars Tim Moore as Robert Shaw, the actor who played the unforgettable shark hunter Quint; Scott Moorehead as Roy Scheider, who played police chief Martin Brody; and Cameron Vargas as Richard Dreyfuss, who portrayed marine biologist Matt Hooper.
The play does not attempt to recreate “Jaws” or retell the familiar story of Chief Brody, Quint and Hooper hunting a great white shark. Instead, it imagines what might have happened between takes, when three very different actors were trapped together on a boat while one of the most difficult film productions in Hollywood history continued around them. The result is part backstage comedy, part character study and part meditation on the strange business of making art.
The men argue about acting, fame, money and masculinity while they wait for the shark to function. They trade stories, needle one another and gradually reveal more than they intend. Beneath the humor is the pressure of a film that is running wildly over schedule, over budget and increasingly beyond anyone’s control.
“The Shark Is Broken” was written by Ian Shaw, Robert Shaw’s son, in collaboration with Joseph Nixon.
Ian Shaw was a child when he visited the set of “Jaws,” where he encountered the mechanical shark that would become one of the film’s most notorious problems. Years later, while wearing a mustache for another acting role, Ian Shaw looked into a mirror and saw his father as Quint looking back at him, prompting him to revisit the story behind the film.
Ian Shaw researched the production through interviews, documentaries, family stories and his father’s personal journals, including a diary that recorded Robert Shaw’s struggles with alcohol during the filming. The connection is especially personal because Robert Shaw died when Ian Shaw was still a child.
In the play, Ian Shaw takes on his father’s most famous screen role, bringing together professional research and an intimate understanding of the man behind the performance.
The play also builds toward one of the most famous scenes in “Jaws”: Quint’s account of surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.
Robert Shaw helped rewrite the speech, transforming it into the haunting monologue remembered by generations of moviegoers. For Ian Shaw, performing the speech became both a theatrical responsibility and a way of engaging with his father’s legacy.
At its heart, “The Shark Is Broken” is about people waiting for something to work again. The shark is broken, the boat is unreliable, the production is in trouble and the men’s relationships are fraying. Yet, in that suspended space, something meaningful begins to emerge as the actors are forced to confront their ambitions, insecurities and very different ideas about what it means to create something lasting.
For audiences familiar with “Jaws,” the play offers a fresh look at the personalities behind the iconic performances. For those who have never seen the film, it remains a comic and human story about ambition, artistic frustration and three actors trying to survive one another.
“The Shark Is Broken” opens Oct. 9 and plays through Nov. 15 at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts.
Tickets are available at pagosacenter.org or by calling (970) 731-SHOW (7469).
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