It was the night when art merged perfectly with real life.

As the curtain rose on The Shark is Broken at Theatre Royal Plymouth, a headset-wearing stagehand bounded onto the stage to tell the audience that the shark really was broken.

This was April 1, and for a moment the audience speculated whether this was in fact a joke, before the stage safety curtain descended, confirming the announcement.

Thankfully, the wait was fleeting and the play soon set sail - complete with animated shark fin.

The Shark Is Broken offers a behind-the-scenes look at the tensions and camaraderie between the three lead actors in the 1975 Spielberg blockbuster movie Jaws - Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider.

Written by and starring Ian Shaw (Robert’s son), with co-writer Joseph Nixon, the play is set on board a boat as the actors endure lengthy delays caused by the now-infamous mechanical shark malfunctions.

With nowhere to go, the trio is forced into hours of conversation, heated debate, hard drinking and occasional violence as Shaw butts heads with the younger, insecure Dreyfuss, while Scheider plays peacemaker.

Discussions range from professional rivalries to reflections on fame, masculinity, and mortality, and the play blends humour with poignancy as it foreshadows Shaw’s premature death a few years later.

First staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 before transferring to the West End and Broadway, The Shark Is Broken is both a moving tribute to Shaw and a melancholic portrait of three actors stranded together as they unwittingly make Hollywood history.

Dan Fredenburgh as Roy Scheider and Ashley Margolis as Richard Dreyfuss star alongside Shaw, who asks: "Do you really think people are going to be talking about this film in 50 years?"

The Shark Is Broken is the compelling answer.

It runs at Theatre Royal Plymouth every evening until Saturday April 5, with extra matinee performances on Thursday and Saturday.