The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Max Wolf Friedlich’s JOB

By Ross

On a very sharply defined theatrical space, downtown at the Connelly Theater on E4th St., a psychological standoff is what immediately snaps us deep into the emotionally volatile and fascinating world of JOB, the thrilling, critically acclaimed play by Max Wolf Friedlich (SleepOver) that is getting an encore engagement after playing a sold-out, twice extended off-Broadway run last fall at the Soho Playhouse. Working this through in real-time, the play is a tense, tight, and tumultuous zooming in on mental health and the workplace, when one young tech worker, played to frayed perfection by Sydney Lemmon (“TÁR“, “Succession”) is mandated to seek the services of a crisis therapist, fascinatingly well-played by Peter Friedman (PH’s The Treasurer; “Succession”).

Directed with clarity and cleverness by Michael Herwitz (MV Playhouse’s The Campaign That Failed), the setup and startup of this armed and well-aimed play grab hold quickly and miraculously, digging us sharply into the space, designed to claustrophobic perfection by Scott Penner (Coal Mine’s Dion: A Rock Opera), with exacting costuming by Michelle Li (Comedy Central’s “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens”). The play puts us off balance, making us lean in to try to understand what is bringing these two together; Lemmon’s Jane and Friedman’s Loyd, in this room with such overwhelming anxiety. It’s wisdom and shame connecting and colliding, setting up a chaotic and life-threatening game of chess, using paradigms and conflictual standings between generations, genders, and political viewpoints.

Something has sent this young female big tech employee over the edge, causing a viral unhinged meltdown that we only secondhand hear about, but it is clearly a scream into the internal void about something overwhelming and disturbing. We assume, like the therapist, that Jane’s job, the one she has been put on leave from and the one she is desperate to get back to, is the cause, and the more we hear and learn, the more we understand, or at least, we think we do.

It’s a sizzlingly tight psychological dive into trauma and destruction, beautifully enhanced by the strong and jarring lighting design by Mextly Couzin (MCC’s Which Way to the Stage) and the clever intrusive sound design created miraculously by Jessie Char and Maxwell Neely-Cohen (Fake Friends’ Invasive Species). The sharpness to examine our vantage points is alarmingly pulling, forcing us to try to make sense of all the voices and sounds rattling around in the red light pulsations that become red siren flags and weapons used against our senses, aiding our discomfort but forcing us to lean in more to the frantic essence of a person overwhelmed.

As a psychotherapist myself (in my real world), the play connected deeply to so many difficult dilemmas and challenges that step into the shared space of the therapy room. The passionate counterarguments and denials of need are well-known engagements, and I couldn’t help but find fascination and connectivity to their standoff, even as they both lean in and away from one another from one minute to the next. The two actors are spectacularly detailed in their stance, both physically and mentally, moving around the “all-time therapy classic” square with precision and expertise.

Returning and wrapping themselves around one another to points made, the twist and dig into the darkness of the web and the idea around an obligation to help, on both sides, become increasingly life-or-death, as the armed walls of JOB keep crumbling and rising with a vengeance. The doctor/patient paradigm is a forever shifting perspective in this captivatingly killer of a play, registering completely under the climax, which doesn’t feel fully formed in its finale. With screams into the dark making more sense with each reveal and wrap-around, Max Wolf Friedlich’s JOB leaves us electrically off balance, wondering and wanting maybe a bit more reversal of fortune in those last few moments, but most assuredly satisfied in the leaving of that room at the end of this complex and captivating ‘session’.

The provocative dark comedy, JOB will play from January 19 through March 23, 2024, at the Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street). https://jobtheplay.com/