James McDermott’s play Jab, set in the difficult days of COVID, lets us glimpse in seventy scenes over seventy-five minutes the pandemic period, exaggerating the tensions in the relationship of the married couple Anne and Don.
Opening with them dancing enthusiastically to the sounds of "Sweet Dream (Are Made Of This) by the Eurythmics", a memory of their earlier life, we are taken to the claustrophobia of their living room where Anne (Kacey Ainsworth), who is an NHS employee, is expected to work online while her bored husband Don (Liam Tobin), who can no longer spend his days behind the counter in his vintage shop, reads the Daily Mail.
In many of the scenes, one of them will mention the increasing number of those dying from COVID.
Their irritability with each other ranges from the noise he makes when he eats a bag of crisps to her frustration at being the one whose wages pay for everything.
Later, more tensions develop around his sexual behaviour and her NHS work. Adding to this is a disagreement about vaccination. Anne worries that, given she is vaccinated and being sent out to work with people who have contracted COVID, Don, who refuses to be vaccinated, will become more vulnerable.
It’s a recognisable, believable story performed by two very fine actors. However, the play seems to barely skim the surface of anything that might have formed the engine of any serious dramatic issue, be they the arguments around the vaccine or the personal and social implications of the disintegrating marriage.
The dialogue has the light, passing amiability of a superficial daytime soap opera that isn’t going anywhere surprising at a leisurely pace that makes it easy to miss bits while you pop out for a break and still follow the whole story. As a consequence, the show lacks social significance and little if any dramatic tension.