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Silo Theatre presents the Aotearoa premiere of the Broadway phenomenon JOB by Max Wolf Friedlich.  3–20 September | Q Theatre Loft

Photography by Greta van der Star. Design by Jeremy Saunders.

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This September, Silo Theatre brings JOB, the acclaimed psychological thriller by American playwright Max Wolf Friedlich, to Q Theatre. Directed by Shane Bosher and starringStephen Lovatt and Olivia Tennet, this razor-sharp two-hander has become one of the most talked-about plays of recent years, sending audiences into late-night Google spirals, Reddit rabbitholes, and endless decoding.

She’s a tech worker carrying a heavy tote bag. He’s the therapist deciding whether she’s safe to return to work. She says she’s fine. He says he’s listening. What should be a routine psychological evaluation quickly becomes something else entirely.

THE INCIDENT HAS BEEN ████████.

Funny, unsettling and impossible to predict, JOB unfolds as a tense battle of perception, power and truth. A conversation becomes an investigation. Every new piece of information changes the picture. Every certainty collapses.

The audience isn’t just watching the story unfold; they’re weighing the evidence.

Following sold-out Off-Broadway seasons, JOB transferred to Broadway in 2024, where it became a word-of-mouth phenomenon. TikTok and Reddit are filled with competing theories, heated arguments and people trying to piece together WTF they had just witnessed.

Jaws will drop.

“80 minutes of pretty much pure tension. A slick, cleverly crafted drop-tower ride.” – Vulture

At its core, JOB is a collision between two generations shaped by very different worlds. It’s a psychological puzzle disguised as a workplace assessment: a battle between two generations over work, ambition, success and who gets to decide what “okay” looks like. With writing evoking a Nolan epic, an HBO cliff-hanger, or a Black Mirror psychological whiplash – JOB examines the internet as the place where we now live, and asks what happens when our online selves, working lives and sense of purpose become impossible to separate.

Returning to Silo Theatre, director and former Silo Artistic Director Shane Bosher says JOB is the kind of work that stays with him.

Bosher is one of the most respected theatre directors in Aotearoa, with a long history of acclaimed productions across the country, including the recent smash-hit Murder on the Orient Express with Auckland Theatre Company. His celebrated Silo Theatre credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, Angels in America, Tartuffe, Top Girls and Private Lives— productions that helped cement his reputation for bringing complex, ambitious contemporary and classic works to the stage.

"I saw this play a few years ago in New York and couldn't stop thinking about it," says Bosher. “It’s rare to find a script that gets under your skin like this. Every time you think you’ve figured it out, it shifts beneath your feet.”

“I’m thrilled to welcome Shane back to Silo with a work that feels so sharply connected to the world we’re living in now,” says Silo Artistic Director Sophie Henderson. “JOBunderstands the cost of being always online, always performing, always trying to prove that you’re fine. When I first read JOB, I spent the whole time trying to solve it - and I was still blindsided."

At the centre of JOB are two actors who know exactly how to keep you guessing.

Stephen Lovatt brings more than three decades of stage and screen experience to the role of the therapist. One of our most acclaimed actors, his theatre credits include Angels in America, Things I Know to Be True and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, with screen audiences knowing him from Shortland Street, Neighbours and Ash vs Evil Dead.

Olivia Tennet takes on a role that defies categorisation. A performer whose career spans television, film, theatre, dance and choreography, Tennet is known for Shortland Street, 800 Words, Creamerie, for Silo in Mr Burns and the Book of Everything, and as the voice of Kiri in the internationally acclaimed series Kiri and Lou. In JOB, she steps into darker territory.

“Engrossing, disturbing and frequently funny. It might even scare you off social media for a day or two.” – The New Yorker

THE LESS YOU KNOW THE BETTER

JOB
By Max Wolf Friedlich
3 – 20 September
Q Theatre Loft, Auckland
Book Now

Directed by Shane Bosher
Starring Stephen Lovatt and Olivia Tennet
Design by John Verryt, Sean Lynch, Paul McLaney and Tautahi Subritzky

Presented with support from Q Theatre.
 
silotheatre.co.nz