One Boat. One Broken Shark

It’s 1974, and the historic first summer blockbuster is being filmed off Martha’s Vineyard, though no one on set would ever guess it. Stranded aboard the Orca while the temperamental mechanical shark breaks down again and again, three very different actors are left to kill the hours together.

Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider pass the time with card games, drinks, and needling one another, their clashing egos and tempers flaring in the cramped quarters of the boat. Written by Ian Shaw (Robert Shaw’s own son) with Joseph Nixon, the play turns a footnote of movie history into a sharp, funny character study of male bravado, insecurity, and fame.

Sanford audiences can look forward to a fast, funny, dialogue-driven evening that never leaves the deck of the boat, yet finds an entire world of tension and humor in three men waiting for a shark to work.