By Jennifer Beasley.
Brilliant direction elevates this play into a tense psychological thriller with many questions left unanswered.
Stuttered sound.
Light flashes – a standoff between new patient Jane (Jessica Clarke) as she holds a gun pointed at the therapist Loyd (Darren Gilshenan).
Four more static scenes follow. A chiaroscuro of high drama wonderfully designed by David Parker with a subtle underscore by Daniel Nixon.
Max Wolf Friedlich’s script, Job, sets a dark tone at the high cliff of drama that beats an unrelenting drum for 75 minutes at the Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre.
The premise, a woman, Jane, who has had a breakdown at her work in IT must see a therapist, Loyd, and deemed fit before she can continue her role.
Yet Jane begins her first session with a gun.
With such an urgent beginning, it takes all the directorial skills of Nadia Tass to keep this motherboard from shorting out. In a script that has an overabundance of themes, she manages to wring every last ounce of pathos from Jessica Clarke, whose magnificent turn as the nervy, unpredictable Jane is a cry for help, her mental health at the whim of the big Tech giant she works for.
Jane storms around the stage, a beautiful construction of an American East Coast therapist’s office by Jacob Battista, dotted with a couch, several chairs, a coffee table and a desk. Black curtains lend an aural of ominiosity, forbearance of the heavy topics and the dark presence of mental calamity.
The back-and-forth exchange between the overwrought Jane and the deflective responses of Loyd drive this plot forward. The pivotal exchanges leading to Jane chair swapping, until she ends up sitting in Loyd’s chair is brilliantly done. However, once we reach this point in the play, the intensity is starting to wane. Particularly when Jane tells Loyd she knows he has a 12-year-old son and he lets that implied threat slide. Really?
Darren Gilshenan does a stellar role as the therapist. He is the calm anchor in the storm of Jane’s outbursts. His New York accent spot on (dialect coach Matt Furlani), yet with such a busy script even he seems exhausted with its multitude of themes that stray from the core of being trapped in a cycle of societies expectations and the enforced politeness to let things slide in the name of progress.
With ventures into the roles of male and female and the dangers women face daily (hence the gun) to a vigilante attitude to correcting wrongs, youth versus age, the stressors of mental health, the evils of big Tech and the rationalisation of allowing previously unacceptable behaviour to continue, the audience struggles to find its way, not helped by the ambiguous ending where Jane’s final accusation leads to a terrified Loyd trying to grapple with this ticking bomb of a patient.
Despite the inherent difficulties of this script, Tass has given Red Stich Actors’ Theatre yet another masterful work, supported by a fantastic crew and wonderful actors. Its portrayal as a social commentary speaks to the efforts of those who preach moderation, and the care that we should all bestow upon our own mental health. Well worth seeing.
Job plays at the Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, at 7:30pm until 12th October 2025.
Image: Sarah Walker
