Park Theatre – until 6 December 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
After convincing her boss that she could be just as brilliant a PA working from home, Bea (Libby Rodliffe) has been juggling 3 jobs for a year. She is the concierge/security/plumber of a luxury block of flats and also does data input when she gets home at night. Although it isn’t her home: she is living in her friend India’s house and looking after her ugly little dog Parsley while India is off spending her late grandparents’ money on a trip to South America. But Bea can handle this chaos – she just needs to be more efficient picking up Parsley from doggy daycare on time.
What starts as a sharp and witty quickfire comedy about the gig economy, the cost of living and toxic bosses evolves into a darker, deeper examination of financial stress and mental health as a series of chaotic events causes her career house of cards to tumble.
Rodliffe is phenomenal, switching between oddball characters with ease and never missing a comic beat. Whether portraying Bea’s smooth and laidback Northern Irish boss Julian, his uptight Australian wife Gillian, self-obsessed influencer Miranda, or building boss Agatha – a monstrously bonkers character somewhere between Julie Walters’ Petunia and Joanna Lumley’s Patsy – each characterisation is precise and consistent. Even her father, who never speaks is drawn clearly as she describes the man she adores, who just happens to take his snakes out for a walk on leashes!
Nicky Allpress directs the dynamic Rodcliffe slickly on Matthew Cassar’s pristine white set, gorgeously lit by Oliver McNally’s array of paper lanterns which light office spaces starkly and fade to mellow pastels as Bea’s mood lightens.
Libby Rodliffe’s writing is as exceptional as her acting: she and co-writer Isley Lynn have created a layered, compelling character and found absurdity and pathos from the dire financial straits she is in. Revealing Bea’s motivations and obligations late on is a masterstroke ensuring that any lingering suspicions that Bea is a cocky character with selfish, self-inflicted debts are banished and her altruistic and desperate actions to save her family are still not enough to stop the spiral into more debts. The drop in energy as the final scenes play out works brilliantly as Bea is such a compelling character that you can’t help but root for, so the audience is hanging on her every word. It would have been easy to end with a big comedic moment, but the quiet hope amid the disasters around her is much more satisfying.
Bold and witty writing and a tour de force performance make Jobsworth a must see show this month.