Archibald MacLeish's morality play J.B., a modern retelling of the Book of Job that takes place within the confines of a circus tent, seems to have fallen out of favor with theatre troupes perhaps seeking "edgier" material. Fortunately, City Lit's artistic director Terry McCabe enjoys the classics (this season also includes Aeschylus and Oscar Wilde), and this always fascinating company adds its own bit of a twist: all 21 roles in the play are played by an ensemble of nine actresses over the age of 55. The result is a completely wonderful, totally memorable J.B. unlike any you may have seen before.
The play's conceit is that vendors Mr. Zuss (think Zeus, hence God) and Mr. Nickels (as in "Old Nick," a folk name for the devil) are talking before the day's events about their days as actors and determine that it is their responsibility to take on roles for the play that is about to happen, because it "always" happens: the story of Job. They overhear J.B., a very rich man, speaking of his devotion to God, and the game is on: Nickels, as Satan, bets Zuss (God) that he cannot do so much evil to J.B. that the man will renounce his faith. Occasionally, a powerful Voice keeps the play-within-a-play on track: the actual Almighty is watching.
As Zuss and Nickels, Elaine Carlson and Morgan McCabe have the showiest things to do in this play. Donning kingly robes (designed by Alaina Moore, along with the rest of the wonderful costumes in this production) and a stony-faced half-mask (the brilliant masks here were created by David Knezz), Carlson shifts in both voice and body into the stiff-bodied, outstretched-armed stance of a god, with deep, booming voice completing the physicalization. ("God never laughs in the Bible," she tells us.) Whenever she removes the mask, though, she suddenly becomes Zuss again, unhappy about how terribly this poor man is being treated and wishing it would stop. McCabe's position, as Satan, is much more fun. Adopting a sleazy-looking half-mask that she insists is perfect (because it contains the marks of "millions...burned, crushed, mutilated...for what? thinking!"), McCabe's movements become at once more fluid, more serpentine as she slinks around the set (the precise "opposite" of God on High as portrayed by Mr. Zuss, who spends most of his time standing on a small platform in "God-position," watching the proceedings) enjoying the show as J.B.'s life becomes more and more, well, hellish.
As the put-upon believer, Stephanie Monday is a revelation. The start of the play finds her leading a large household and praising God for her good fortune while acknowledging that "no one deserves the life God has given us." J.B.'s perpetual smile in the presence of his extended family and loving wife, his joy over his business successes, the purity of his love for God, shine through in Monday's performance. As one calamity after another befalls the man, though, Monday allows her face to darken into shadow, her body to shrink, her entire physicality ultimately to collapse into a painful heap, and the praise that J.B. gives to his God, still present, becomes so much harder.
The other member of the cast who retains the same role throughout is Judy Lea Steele as Sarah, J.B.'s wife. At first the epitome of the happy suburban housewife at he family's Thanksgiving dinner, the various disasters take a quick toll on Sarah, and Steele's expressive face hides exactly nothing as she appears more and more bedraggled and becomes, more and more, Satan's mouthpiece in J.B.'s life, begging her husband to renounce his faith in a God who could allow these things to happen. When he can't or won't, she is unable to stand being with him any longer.
The rest of the ensemble, playing the other 17 roles, is a joy to watch as they slip in and out of various characters: the children of J.B., reporters, a "comforter" triad that does anything but comfort, policemen and soldiers, a quartet of homeless women, etc. All of this is played out on a simple but effective circus tent set created by Caitlyn Grissom. Light and sound, too, in this play, are almost additional characters: as designed by Jess Fialko and Daniel Carlyon, respectively, they add powerful moments to what is an already powerful piece. Brian Pastor's direction manages to get all of these elements, from the strong performances to the various technical pieces, to come together perfectly and keeps the piece moving from start to finish as we watch God and Satan in their little tug of war.
The Book of Job has always seemed to me the place in the Bible where God comes off the worst: to allow such things to occur for no reason at all to the best of his followers has always seemed capricious and shallow and ugly. All of that comes through in this play, and that Zuss clearly feels it too is a credit to Carlson's performance. Interestingly, Nickels also feels it, and McCabe captures his frustration perfectly. This is not a victory for anyone except the audience, who came to see a dynamite play and found exactly what they were looking for.