When a gun is introduced in the first act, it better go off in the second or third.
Today, few plays even have a second act, and at 80 minutes, Max Wolf Friedlich’s “Job” doesn’t just introduce a gun when the lights first go up on the stage at the Helen Hayes Theater. That weapon is menacingly held by a young female patient who points the pistol at an older male psychologist. That’s one way to begin a therapy session, as well as a play. “Job” opened Tuesday on Broadway after a run last year Off Broadway.
I didn’t put a spoiler alert at the top of this review, because, frankly, The Gun is there from the get-go of Friedlich’s creaky new thriller.