J.B. is a 1958 play written in free verse by American playwright and poet Archibald MacLeish and is a modern retelling of the story of the biblical figure Job – hence the title: J.B./Job. The play went through several incarnations before it was finally published. MacLeish began the work in 1953 as a one-act production but within three years had expanded it to a full three-act manuscript. There are two versions of J.B. available: the original book, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the script which MacLeish revised substantially for Broadway, published by Samuel French Inc.
Plot summary
The play opens in "a corner inside an enormous circus tent". Two vendors, Mr. Zuss and Nickles begin the play-within-a-play by assuming the roles of God and Satan, respectively. They overhear J.B., a wealthy New York banker, describe his prosperity as a just reward for his faithfulness to God. Scorning him, Nickles wagers that J.B. will curse God if his life is ruined. Nickles and Zuss then watch as J.B.'s children are killed and his property is ruined and the former millionaire is left to the streets. J.B. is then visited by three Comforters: Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar who each offer a different explanation for his plight. J.B. declines to believe any of them, instead asking God himself to explain. Instead he encounters Zuss and Nickles. Nickles urges him to commit suicide in order to spite God; Zuss offers him his old life back if he will promise to obey God. J.B. rejects them both, and instead finds comfort in the person of his wife Sarah. The play ends with the two building a new life together.
J.B. – A millionaire; based on the Old Testament character Job
Sarah – J.B.'s wife
Mr. Zuss – A retired-actor-now-balloon-vendor in a circus; assuming the role of the Abrahamic God
Nickles – A retired-actor-now-popcorn-vendor in a circus; assuming the role of Satan
The Distant Voice – An anonymous voice that prompts more action in the play, suggested to be the voice of God
The Children of J.B. and Sarah – David ; Mary ; Jonathan ; Ruth ; Rebecca
Two 'buxom, middle-aged' Maids
Two Messengers: 'dressed as soldiers' in Scene Three; with 'battered felt hats...a news camera... a notebook' in Scene Four; 'wearing steel helmets and brassards' in Scene Six
A 'stylishly dressed Girl'
In Scene Eight, et seq.: 'Four Women' and 'a young girl', 'their arms filled with blankets and newspapers.'
In Scene Nine: 'Three Comforters... in worn-out clothing': Zophar, a fat, red-faced man wearing 'the wreck of a clerical collar'; Eliphaz, lean and dark, wearing 'an intern's jacket which once was white'; and Bildad, a squat, thick man in a ragged wind-breaker.'
Awards and nominations
The ANTA Playhouse production won the 1959 Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Direction. The play won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize committee wrote: " 'Certainly no other play of this or many seasons has attempted to come to grips with so large and universal a theme and succeeded in stating it in terms more eloquent, moving, provocative' than J.B."
