Review: JOB at New Jewish Theatre is a Turbulent Psychological Drama
Max Wolf Friedlich’s Gripping JOB Gets it St. Louis Premiere at NJT
For the second time this season New Jewish Theatre is bringing a recent work and a St. Louis premiere to the stage. In April, artistic Rebekah Scallet and her team premiered Prayer for the French Republic. This week the folks at NJT premiere Max Wolf Friedlich’s 2023 play JOB.
The intense thriller JOB examines the fragile relationship between a psychologist (Lloyd) and a woman (Jane) he is evaluating for a potential return to work following an emotional breakdown. Jane works in a tech job in the Silicon Valley as a social media content moderator. The stress of her job reviewing horrific social media posts has taken a significant toll on Jane’s mental health. The play opens with the fragile and erratic Jane arriving at Lloyd’s office for her evaluation. For the next 90-minutes their tense and unpredictable interaction unfolds.
The less said about Friedlich’s suspenseful psychological drama the better. This review intentionally avoids any plot spoilers, but director Annamaria Pileggi and actors John Contini and Kristen Lindvedt capture all of the heightened drama in Friedman’s riveting script.
Contini and Lindvedt explore a vast array of fervent emotions throughout the psychologist's evaluation of the employee’s emotional stability. The actors convey the characters’ vulnerabilities and fragile psyches through dialogue and emotional embodiment to the point that the audience can sense their changes in respiration and heart rate. Pileggi evokes raw emotional portrayals from her actors.
Michael Sullivan’s lighting design and Kareem Deen’s sound design are particularly effective at conveying the characters' repressed emotions and their psychological instability. C. Otis Sweezy’s elevated set piece extends beyond a much smaller base and seems to teeter on an unstable edge. His pixilated backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge conjures imagery of the details of a story that are yet to be revealed.
New Jewish Theatre’s production of JOB a visceral theatrical experience. It is a turbulent psychological drama with unexpected twists and turns.
The St. Louis premiere of JOB continues its run at New Jewish Theatre through August 23, 2026, visit jccstl.com for more information.
Photo Credit: Jon Gitchoff
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