JOB
Transferring from Off-Broadway, Max Wolf Friedlich’s JOB opened at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater. Directed by Michael Herwitz with glossy updates by Scott Penner (scenic design), Michelle J. Li (costume design), Mextlty Couzin (lighting design) and Cody Spencer (sound design), JOB has the components of a thriller. Thanks to stars Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon’s build-up of tension by the conclusion, the audience may delight in the play’s power struggle, twists and turns. However, the production also leaves one hungry for delineation and specificity.
Though the actors navigate the contrivances of dialogue and plot with sprightly intention, the glaring gaps that remain unanswered, especially at the conclusion, interfere with our emotional identification with the characters. As a result, authenticity and a lack of emotional grist undercut the powerful themes of human alienation and the weaponization of anonymity.
On the one hand the playwright shows how the phone and internet obsessions of the digital age promote tragedy. On the other hand, in too-shallow characterizations, he neglects exploring how human alienation aligns with the human condition of not knowing oneself. Thus, the emotional trauma of those like Jane, hired to monitor and remove videos of evil, sadistic behavior on internet platforms, loses importance. Inevitably, the playwright’s effort to heighten tension throughout gets in the way. It especially sinks in the wobbly, compromised blackout at the conclusion.
Therapist Loyd Meets Patient Jane
Sydney Lemmon’s Jane shows up for her first therapy appointment with Peter Friedman’s Loyd carrying a gun in her bag. When the lights come up we get a shock. We note Jane trembling as she points the gun at Loyd. What a fantastic way to open a sequence. Sadly, we realize the artificiality: She can’t shoot Loyd to death because the play will end. Suffice to say after a few twists and complex, opaque segues, Loyd’s calm reassurance seems to disarms Jane and she “comes to herself.” Apologetically, she disassociates from the gun-toting person she presented moments before. She also reminds Loyd he can call the police, a therapist’s privilege. Considering that he should, when Loyd suggests they “talk it through,” questions arise.
Exactly who controls whom, and who will win the game of life-and-death manipulation? Jane holds onto the gun. Also, when he suggests she get the water she’s requested from the hall fountain, she declines. And she prevents Loyd from leaving, and insists they remain in the room. Jane’s contradictory behaviors and explanations abound, rationalized by having little sleep for two days. Additionally, she reveals she’s a fan of the Xanax that she gets from a guy who gets it over the counter from Mexico. Her previous therapists and/or psychiatrists (she started in therapy at age nine) haven’t prescribed her these meds. She self-medicates.
As she admits to taking Xanax, we understand Jane needs to feel in control. Thus, she holds Loyd hostage to control the situation and this therapy session, and will continue until she gets what she wants from him. By meandering degrees, we discover the nervous 20-something’s wants and her reason for being in therapy with Loyd.
Why Is Jane in Therapy?
Recently, Jane has been put on leave from her position at a Bay Area tech company. Though she insists she doesn’t need therapy personally, her employer demands Loyd sign off on her emotional status. Apparently, Jane had a breakdown at work. In a blackout she stood on a desk screaming at her co-workers, which necessitated her hospitalization. Refusing a severance package, Jane wrangled a compromise from her employers. They demand she must get Loyd’s signature before she returns to work, which she desperately wants to do.
To further complicate the situation, a video of her screaming went viral when co-workers leaked it online. Jane’s behavior has garnered her fans and she achieves an undesired meme status. Losing her anonymity, she can’t go anywhere in peace without people identifying her from the numerous, weird memes posted online.
Taking all of this in, more questions arise about Jane and Loyd’s strange attraction and repulsion behaviors. Why alienate the therapist one needs help from by threatening him? On Loyd’s part, why not call the police – she’s pulled a gun on him, and suggests he should call them? Because her questionable mental state hasn’t allowed her to release him, we sympathize with Loyd and find Jane’s erratic, cognitive dissonance off-putting.
Unfortunately, Friedlich’s characterizations, drawn superficially for to the situation, function more as devices to create suspense and tension than to move us toward empathy and catharsis. Though there are additional revelations toward the end of the play when the characters’ interactions explode, we still don’t understand enough about Loyd and Jane to understand the tragedy of what they put each other through.
No Definitive Conclusion
Finally, because Friedlich refuses to commit to a conclusive resolution and doesn’t allow one or the other character to assert dominance, he doesn’t fully mine his drama’s purpose. All of this resolves in having brought the gun onstage for sensationalistic value. An old theater adage states that if a character trots onstage with a gun, it must be fired sooner or later. And so it should go with Jane and Loyd.
However, the 80-minute production never delivers a gunshot, nor do the characters wrestle physically to stop or promote murder. Instead, the play ends with oblivion in darkness. Thus, not only do we not understand what will happen, we don’t fully understand what has happened. Furthermore, since a good deal of the play consists of explanations by the characters of their past, both Loyd and Jean become unreliable, untrustworthy narrators. If we don’t believe either one, why should we care about them?
JOB succeeds best in the sections where Jane reveals what her job entails and why she wants it back. We recoil when we learn that the job makes her feel purpose and power in a cruel world where others anonymously post videos of torture, murder and animal slaughter. Also JOB succeeds when the suspenseful actions between Loyd and Jane have clarity and meaning. If Jane really believes Loyd is who she hunts and thus kills him then the extraordinary coincidence of his being the therapist her company sends her to appears less contrived. Not fulfilling her belief, not shooting Loyd, the reason why she brought the gun, trivializes the characters and the themes.
The Actors Rise Above the Play’s Deficiencies
Friedman and Lemmon labor to rise above the characters as devices of suspense and round them out. At the times when the dialogue and structure allows them to succeed, the dynamic they create is riveting. With a clear, purposeful conclusion, they might have been able to drive home the fullness of their characters’ tragedy to elicit audience empathy.
Herwitz also labors to keep the action dynamic, with seamless staging. The well appointed office serves his vision. However, at times the dialogue wanders and interest wavers, despite his and the actors’ fine efforts. The selection of original music by Devonté Hynes is a welcome addition.
JOB runs 80 minutes with no intermission through September 29 at the Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street between 7th and 8th.
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