Is it too early for a play about the effects of the pandemic, or is Jab an injection that we badly need?
James McDermott took inspiration from his own parents to create this play, a two-hander about Annie (Kacey Ainsworth), an NHS worker, and her husband Don (Liam Tobin).
When lockdown strikes, their marriage of nearly 30 years comes under strain, and the black comedy takes an uneasy turn.
Scott Le Crass’s production, designed by Leah Kelly, sets four chairs in an empty space flanked by the audience on three sides. It feels antiseptic but also gives room for both intimacy and distance as the play progresses.
Jab is written as a succession of short scenes between the two characters as they dance, bicker, and needle each other. With their sons grown up and gone, they only have each other.
But is it enough?
Covering issues such as “power, gender, domestic violence, conspiracy theories, ignorance, and the limits of love”, Jab is a piece that looks back on a year of crisis through one couple’s eyes.
The two-metre rule, the outdoor clapping, the inflammatory headlines, the limited walks, the shop closures, the government grants all add colour to this one room.
Tobin gives Don a believable spin on a character it is hard to like. Constantly belittled for his failing shop, bankrolled by his wife, he is a resentful crisp-munching couch potato.
Ainsworth’s Annie is exhausted and on the edge, at work seeing the reality of a virus that seems remote to those confined at home. She draws out the reality of a woman who loves who her husband was, but struggles to cope with him now.
Jab is a play that seeks to make you smile before it swings into hard-hitting mode. You may expect it, but when it comes, it is handled with flair and respect.
For those of us who survived the pandemic with hugs and humour as far as possible, this couple may seem extreme, but the script seeks to capture the good and bad.
It’s one of many Covid-19 stories that can be told. Whether we have enough distance from it yet remains to be seen.
Jab continues at Finborough Theatre until 16 Mar with tickets here.
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Image credit: Steve Gregson