QUINT-UM LEAP: WHEN JAWS STAR ROBERT SHAW DELIVERED THE BOMB TO HIS SON, IAN SHAW

You can catch The Shark Is Broken until November 6th, 2022 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Totonto, Canada.

Sounds absurd doesn't it? It's one of the most famous monologues in film history, where Quint (played masterfully by Robert Shaw) talks about being on board the ill-fated USS Indianapolis.

It was in Japanese waters as it was returning from a secret mission to deliver the Hiroshimi bomb.

That bomb, known as Little Boy, was delivered on a B-29 bomber - dubbed the flying fortress - called Enola Gay. It was piloted by Paul Tibbets, and in 2005 the BBC and Discovery Channel produced a docu-drama about the dropping of the bomb and its aftermath.

Playing Tibbets, was none other than Ian Shaw, son of Quint-actor, Robert Shaw. So, technically Robert Shaw had delivered the Hiroshimi bomb for his son to fly it over Hiroshimi. An event that actually happened in 1945, immortalised in the USS Indianapolis speech 30 years later, and linked from acting father to acting son another 30 years after that.

Ian Shaw played pilot Paul Tibbets in a 2005 docu-drama about the dropping of the Hiroshimi bomb.

And, if there hadn't been that strange quirk of historic connection, then perhaps we would not have ended up with Ian co-writing and starring in The Shark Is Broken, about the behind the scenes going on on the set of Jaws.

A young Ian Shaw gets a sneaky peak at Bruce while on location on Martha’s Vineyard with his father Robert who played Quint.

Shaw is playing his dad, playing Quint, which sees everything come full circle as he gets to deliver the same mesmerising monologue that his dad did.

We were fortunate to interview Ian Shaw ahead of the show making its Edinburgh Festival debut a couple of years back, with it opening in London's West End later this year.

He told us about the genesis of the idea from him playing the role of the Enola Gay pilot that linked him to Quint, and his dad.

The Daily Jaws: Why have you decided to now do this play based on your dad’s diaries and conversations from when he filmed Jaws?

Ian Shaw: In 2005 I played Colonel Tibbets in a drama-documentary called Hiroshima. He was the commanding officer of the Enola Gay, so he was the one who received the atomic bomb from the USS Indianapolis.

I thought of my father delivering the Bomb to me, suffering the horrors of being torpedoed and under shark attack, and thought that was a surreal connection. Years later I lay in bed one night thinking about JAWS, and also the wonderful JAWS LOG by Carl Gottlieb, and I thought it might be interesting to tell the story of the three actors waiting on the Orca while the shark was broken.

So I sketched out some ideas - there were some subjects that interested me, particularly alcoholism, art vs commercialism, ego vs teamwork, boredom, neurosis. Then I shelved the idea as being too personal, and potentially tasteless.

It came back when I discussed it with a writer friend, Jospeh Nixon, who thought it was a story that should be told. So we wrote it together in the end. I still had my doubts, but when my family read it and approved of it, I felt it should be staged. I am about my father’s age when he played Quint, so this has to be the time to do it!

Words by Dean Newman

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