Through suffering there can be salvation, Polish playwright Karol Wojtyla tells his anguished countrymen in Job, written in 1940, some six months after Germany invaded Poland.
Wojtyla, of course, is best known as Pope John Paul II, and his writing vibrates with expected religious fervor. It tells the story of righteous Job, whose allegiance to God is severely tested by the twists of fate destroying his family and wealth. The play is tied indelibly to its time and place, but in this thoughtful production by the Storm Theatre, it emerges as a vivid example of religious drama aiming to instruct and inspire. It's part of Storm's ongoing festival dedicated to the plays of Wojtyla, who as a young man aimed at a career in theatre, acting and writing.
Deepening historical resonances, director John Regis stages Job as a play within a play, setting the production in 1944 during the failed Warsaw uprising against the Nazis. Underground warriors gather in a ruined church to enact the play as an offering to their occupied country, both as "a prayer and a protest." As it progresses, a priest interpolates grim data of the Nazi occupation, and the events in Job's story are linked to the tragedies happening in Poland. For example, when a servant tells Job of the destruction of his sheep by fire from the sky, the sound of overhead planes is heard. Much of this concept works; some of it seems forced and even illogical. But it lends suspense and tension to the proceedings.
The 10-person cast functions well as an ensemble, though some are not quite up to the rhetorical demands of Boleslaw Taborski's elevated but unstilted translation. As Job, Timothy Smallwood achieves powerful moments as he questions God's treatment. Dan Cozzens makes an impassioned Elihu, the prophet who finally brings Job -- and by inference the Poles -- a message of hope and promise of redemption that will come through Christ and his suffering.
Presented by and at the Storm Theatre as part of the Karol Wojtyla Theatre Festival,
145 W. 46th St., NYC.
Oct. 14-Nov. 11. Schedule varies.
(212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.