Jab byJames McDermott. Park 90, 13 Clifton Terrace, London N4 until 26 April 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Steve Gregson.

Jab byJames McDermott. Park 90, 13 Clifton Terrace, London N4 until 26 April 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Powerful, disturbing.”

Jab first opened a year ago at the Finborough when I gave this account of a marriage in free fall during the Covid pandemic four stars and praised the acting and the power of the writing as well as the direction of Scott Le Crass. Maybe it seems a little less powerful now – there are other worries facing the world – but it is arguably still the play which summed up how isolation during the pandemic could destroy a relationship. Anne (Kacey Ainsworth) works for the NHS and becomes a vacinator, while Don (Liam Tobin), her husband of some 29 years, stays home. He has run, more or less as a hobby, a shop but now cannot do so and has become more or less a house husband, a role he resents. We meet them in a series of short scenes as things deteriorate and the initially jolly Don turns into an abuser demanding sex and refusing to go for a jab, while she suffers the effects of the menopause and, through her work, knowing what can happens loses patience with him. It happens as night after night they watch television, drink wine and bickering turns into abusive behaviour until, inevitably, he ends up in hospital and she is alone talking to him on the telephone. He does, of course, die – which in a way is her salvation. Arguably the play works less well in the larger space of Park 90 – the smaller Finborough confronted one far more closely with the couple, whereas in Park 90 one becomes part of an audience instead of being there in that claustrophobic living room. The set consists of four chairs and the pair move from one to the other, sometimes seated side by side, sometime apart – the initial closeness, because it was a good enough marriage, starts to break down and the way the chairs are placed shows what has happened. A year ago Jab was very moving, now perhaps less so – Covid is yesterday, come the next pandemic maybe people will have learned what to do and unbelievers like Don will be rarer, and there are other worries to occupy minds. Lessons have been learned, the Covid inquiry will report but it remains a powerfully performed and disturbing play.

Cast

Kacey Ainsworth – Anne

Liam Tobin – Don

Creatives

Director – Scott Le Crass

Lighting Designer – Jodie Underwood

Sound Designer – Adam Langston