It begins when a young woman comes into the office of a therapist and points a gun at him. The set turns dark for a moment, and we are not sure what is going on. Is it a flashback or maybe a flash forward? We soon see that the woman is a new patient that has been told that she must seek therapy to get back the job she’s been suspended from in the Silicon Valley because a video of her recently went viral. That is the start of the Philadelphia premier of the play, “Job,” by Max Wolf Friedlich. In the next 80 minutes of this “therapy” session, we discover the many complicated issues of Jane, that young woman.
Her job has driven her to the brink of madness as we learn of her struggles at work and her struggles with life. It is the therapist’s job to help her. Loyd asks her a ton of questions to try to understand his patient’s issues, but she has struggled with them for most of her life (Her parents started her in therapy at the age of nine).
Loyd became a therapist after a tragedy in his own life and he decided to make a career helping others. When Jane shows him the video, we hear screaming and see the pained and horrified reaction of the therapist. We are not sure what he has seen. Was it obscene? Did she try to kill herself? There are many unanswered questions throughout, and that is part of the beauty of the play.
During the session, she goes on rants. She is constantly shifting gears. She has panic attacks. She blames everyone, including the hippies and therapists for her condition. No one has ever listened to her. Loyd tries to interject with questions to get to the source of her problems but doesn’t succeed. We eventually learn that she was a content moderator for the company, and she observed so many upsetting postings that she personally tried to rectify. She couldn’t make a difference, and it drove her to this place in the therapist’s office.
It’s hard to believe that so much could be packed into an 80-minute show as we also learn so much about her pregnancy and her troubled childhood. It makes you wonder about yourself if you’ve ever been in therapy.
Arianna Gayle is such a scary person as she portrays the disturbed Jane so realistically. As the therapist, Scott Greer delivers another fine performance as he tries to help Jane, but also as he interacts with her when challenged. Our eyes go back and forth as we look at the expressions on the faces of these two great actors. Director Deborah Block has woven together this most complex and intense therapy session you will not soon forget.
“Job” by Max Wolf Friedlich at Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, 215-218-4022, boxoffice@theatreexile.org Thru November 16, 2025
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 