Review: Jobsworth (Park Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sometimes having a job simply isn’t enough, and so often those logging the most hours on job hunting seem to be the already-employed, but who still cannot seem to cover all if their outgoings from one month to the next. In Jobsworth, a co-written one-hander by Isley Lynn and Libby Rodliffe playing at London’s Park Theatre, we see the hilarity and the heartbreak that comingle when multiple jobs become essential, and real life falls by the wayside in favour of sitcom-style hijinks to keep multiple bosses from learning the truth.

It seems to prove the show’s troubling point that the show has opened during the run of The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights, another tale of struggling minimum-wagers playing elsewhere in the same building. In Jobsworth, we find Bea joining a mandatory check-in at her office PA job, trying to cover up the fact that her “working from home” is taking place in the lobby of the luxury flat building she concierges for, and that she needs to dash off the moment the workday ends to pick up the designer pooch she is dog-sitting, and log in for her remote data entry shift. Four jobs, no agreements from the multiple bosses, and still not enough left over to pay for a round of drinks – Bea, to put it lightly, is struggling.

There is, of course, a backstory to why Bea needs to do quite so much to still come away with quite so little. Isley and Rodliffe wisely opt not to reveal this personal disaster upfront, instead drip-feeding us clarifications of quite how skint Bea is, and how complicated her relationships with her parents have become. Instead, we are able to get to know Bea as she is, and the co-writers are able to deliver an agonising gut-punch when the truth is revealed. The duo focus on the comedic and dramatic potential of the character’s circumstances, letting us come to truly care about her before the penny fully drops, allowing for maximum impact.

Libby Rodliffe also stars in Jobsworth, principally as Bea but also morphing into a variety of eccentric characters who litter her world. Her ability to shift between lines from one persona to the next is captivating, and she does particularly well with the transformations into influencer resident Miranda, phone constantly poised to record another live and drawling American accent the perfect degree of irritating, and office boss Julian, who she delivers with the right amount of smarminess to make him thoroughly detestable but often very funny. Rodliffe’s greatest skill is in creating full dialogues while playing every role, building genuine connections between characters while completely alone on the stage.

Of course, this easy blending of roles is also the product of Nicky Allpress’ direction, which helps the play to move smoothly from one scene to the next, and keeps clear, defined distinctions between locations. The dog-sitter who Bea is constantly late to relieve exists in one corner of the stage, while the office she only occasionally enters in person lies in the centre. These choices make it easy to keep track of where Bea is, and with whom she is speaking, even before the myriad of characters have been firmly established, and allows for Rodliffe’s performance to speak for itself without having to constantly establish her location or intentions in any given scene.

Rodliffe’s finest character work, unsurprisingly, is in creating Bea herself. From how she interacts with the array of secondary characters to her increasingly tragic fourth-wall breaks to tell us more about her life, Rodliffe’s performance is utterly magnetic. There are stretches in logic, and questions unasked by the play itself and therefore unanswered (how has she kept up two full-time jobs operating at the exact same hours for a full year, when each is shown to be fairly demanding?) but Rodliffe sells the conceit so completely that we are, more often than not, willing to turn a blind eye.

Operating in an exaggerated but painfully real version of contemporary London, Jobsworth manages to be a genuinely funny one-hander, and a harrowing cautionary tale of the “too deep” so many of us are at near-constantly risk of getting into. With a smooth, forever-building script and a masterful multi-rolling showcase at its heart, this is a witty and wonderful exploration of a familiar character, and a well-shaped production whose balance of relatability and heart will undoubtedly win over audiences.

Jobsworth plays at the Park Theatre until December 6^th

For tickets and information visit https://parktheatre.co.uk/events/jobsworth/

Photos by Harry Elletson