Job Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...Here is the setup for this taut, 85-minute affair, and then I need to shut up about the plot because the less you know, the better. A young woman, Jane (Rae Gray), has come to see this mental health professional, Loyd, because her workplace, a technology firm, has had enough concerns about her state of mind that it wants a sign-off before she is allowed to return to work. The entire, single-setting play is made up of their session."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Max Wolf Friedlich’s “Job” takes on a lot in its harrowing 85-minute run time. Through two people on one set, the drama digs into mental illness, the generational abyss between boomers and millennials, virulent misogyny and Big Tech’s indelible role in promulgating all of the above. Often incongruously funny, “Job” is infused with a looming, ever-intensifying dread that feels all too timely."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...Esbjornson’s staging requires a complicated emotional dance from Donahue and Gray, with the latter once again showing how astonishingly adept she is at embodying characters who are deeply anguished, but also highly self-observant even in the deepest abyss of their psychological pain"

Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended

"...Max Friedlich's Job is one of the reasons why I love theater. It illustrates the exhilarating energy of live performers on stage, effortlessly delivering months of meticulously rehearsed lines. The intensity of dialogue that resonates with raw emotions, capturing the profound joys and sorrows of humanity, creates a captivating connection between the actors and the audience with each performance."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...A theatre like Writers Theatre has built its reputation on bold, contemporary storytelling and the development of new works—and its current production of JOB proves exactly why. Playing in the intimate Gillian Theatre, a flexible 100-seat black box space, this Midwest and Chicago premiere delivers a gripping, psychological experience that fully utilizes the room’s adaptability."

Buzz Center Stage - Recommended

"...For 85 minutes, the two joust back and forth. Jane has no belief in the efficacy of psychotherapy, and is an unwilling patient. Loyd specializes in tough cases. The playwright records Jane’s unintentional revelations of her deep-seated issues that led to the meltdown, which was shared on social media and went viral, damaging to her and to her employer’s reputation, to say the least."

MaraTapp.org - Highly Recommended

"...This is a challenging piece to let alone write about, let alone wrap your head around – perhaps apt for a play about a therapy session – because of those surprises, which would be ruined should they be revealed. Call this a high-order head game with soaring stakes."

Evanston Roundtable - Highly Recommended

"...Job, now playing at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, has so many themes they are nearly impossible to count: the positive and negative effects of technology, the inherent dangers of the internet, the folly of youth, abortion, the tragedy of capitalism, gaslighting, the ubiquitous nature of the cell phone, and many others."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...“Job” is a dream play for actors. The two actors in the hit play’s Chicago premiere, Rae Gray and Christopher Donahue, both deliver stirring and ultimately deeply terrifying performances. The verbal duels of playwright Max Wolf Friedlich’s two characters range smartly over the troubling issues of the morally unbounded, prying infoverse, the internet, which throws its users without interruption. Friedlich wrote the play, his first professionally produced work, while still in his mid-twenties. It premiered successfully in New York in 2023, where it traveled from off-Broadway to Broadway."