Theatre Review: Job

The Production: Job by Max Wolf Freidlich

The Company: The Red Stitch Actor's Theatre

The Theatre:Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East

Until: 11 October (Closing night tonight)

Stars: 4

I thought the heavens were going to going to conspire against me and not let me see this, the traffic being so bad down Chapel Street. Being a 100-seat theatre, there's a rather strict lockout policy. Thankfully, I arrived with a minute to spare and kick off was ten minutes late. I'm glad. I would have kicked myself for missing this 75-minute gem of a production. It also has one of my favourite local actors in on of the roles. Darren Gilshenan is great in everything he does. Jessica Clarke

The second question I was asked, when I told friends that I was seeing this - was this about Job, as in the biblical character, or Job, as in the thing you do to make money. Turns out it's the latter. 

I love the intimacy of this theatre. The stage is tiny - around ten meters squared. The stage is set up to resemble a therapist's office, all second-hand furniture and mismatching coffee mugs. It is here we're introduced to Loyd (Gilshenan) and Jane (Clarke). Jane has a gun drawn on Loyd. 

We soon find out that Jane is wanting Loyd to write a report that allows her to go back to work. 

Love, pulling a gun on your independent therapist is probably not the way to do this. 

The next 75-minutes are a tense, often funny, very real exploration of how we view work, ourselves and our responsibilities to ourselves and our working lives. 

Nadia Tass's direction keeps the action moving, while inserting the laughs in what is a serious play. Jane feels not only responsible for her job, but the world. Her role as a content moderator lead to what looks like PTSD and burnout. It's a known fact that people in these roles have a very high turnover. Jane had come to a crossroads. Loyd tried to get her to see that she has a role in her breakdown. 

This was a fantastic 75-minutes of theatre which had me continually asking questions of the script and plot? Who has responsibility for a worker's mental health? What can one person do to protect society? How do you recover from such a role? And the big one, why would Jane want to go back? 

Clarke and Gilshenan were fantastic. Seeing them was worth the ticket price alone. 

My only small reservation was the lighting design for the show, which felt a little heavy handed in the way that when the soundscape inferred that Jane was melting down, the light's flashed. I can see why it was done, but I'm not sure it served what was otherwise a great play. 

I hope to keep going back to the Red Stitch Actor's Theatre - they put on some thought-provoking, interesting and entertaining plays. 

The season ended this evening. 

Today's song: