J.B.: A Play in Verse

JB is a 20th century version of JOB, the most referred to book in the Bible. This modern masterpiece has all the drama and poignancy of its Old Testament counterpart and it has somewhat a better ending and answers to the question about why bad things happen to the good. JB's blinding trust in a God who rewards the good and punished the sinful remains despite all that happens to him or his family. The devil has more compassion for him than God and his wife even more. She first leaves him for his maniacal faith only to return with her answer to the answerable--love. The play raises the most troublesome question of faith and like the book Job has no answers except (1) the ways of God are mysterious (an answer unworthy of the question and those whose circumstances most need to know) and (2) your answer is the afterlife's rewarding heaven or fire-consuming hell. There is no answer as God is silent and exists in the regions of one's faith and choice that stems from the free choice God gave us as a consequence of sin. Could He just have decided at the Garden to kick us out with a "good riddance?" If you want to explore this question from a different viewpoint, read the ever wise Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

J.B. is a modern day (1950s) retelling of the biblical story of Job. To summarize: Job, God's most loyal servant, is punished by God without reason. God only wishes to prove that no matter what obstacles God threw at him, Job would still "praise God." While the story of Job makes a deep point about human suffering and the strength of faith, J.B. delves deeper. The play centers on a dialogue between two characters, Zuss and Nickles, who play God and Satan respectively. Each makes important points about the root of suffering and God's role in Job's pain. Zuss argues, in more words or less, that Job has no right to question God. Nickles, instead, sympathizes with Job's pain believing that God has been unfair to mankind and especially to this man. Please grant that these are simplifications of their arguments, one can write novels on the meaning of this play. Its not hard to imagine how the play ends, but like many things it's the journey not the destination that matter. The banter between the two, and satirical overtones of throwing the whole setting in a circus tent, take the reader beyond the norm. This is a story that requires the reader to engage, be prepared to think! You can not help but question your spirituality and faith during the play. For while few of us suffer as Job does, fewer still believe in God. Would you be able to still love God, if he took everything away from you? I'll be straightforward and admit that my review is biased. MacLeish's J.B. has been (since reading it in my High School AP English Class) my favorite. I'm an avid reader, but there's something so subtly beautiful about MacLeish's language, something so deep in his words that have resounded in my heart, that I am compelled to re-read this play over and over again. MacLeish has a profound message to teach us "modern, disillusioned men" that one would have to have a heart of stone not to appreciate.

I was familiar with J.B. when it first came out in the late 50's or early 60's. The story of the Book of Job was updated to a time when nuclear war was a possibility, and that was the backdrop for J.B.'s (Job's) losses. With the terrorist threat now prevalent in the world, the play is now more timely than ever.

MacLeish's pulitzer prize winning verse play sets the Old Testament book of Job in a semi-satirical modern setting (a circus tent), where JB (Job) undergoes his trials under the watchful eyes of the circus vendors Zuss and Nickles, who mimic the roles of God and Satan, respectively. JB's plight is essentially a play within a play, as the focus of the work tends to be the interactions between Zuss and Nickles. MacLeish raises the eternal questions through these powerful scenes, most notably with the recurring jingle of Nickles: "If God is God he is not good; if God is good He is not God..." Readers of this play are forced to address the questions themselves while they are entertained and challenged by the proposals of the characters and the Biblical parallels they represent.