Waiting for Jobs
Stolen from a comment by “Jack is Back” at Just One Minute:
Waiting for Jobs is an absurdist play by David Axelrod, in which two characters, Barack and Michelle, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Jobs to appear. Job’s absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play’s staging every autumn after 3 successive “recovery summers”. It was voted “the most over-rated and insignificant English language play of the 21th century”.
[1]Waiting for Jobs is Axelrods’s translation of his own original French version, En attendant les Travaux, and is subtitled (in English only) “a [national] tragicomedy in two acts known as Inauguration and Failure”.[2] The original French text was composed between 21 January 2009 and 8 September 2011.[3] The première was on 3 February 2009 in the Theater of Congress, Washington, DC. The production was directed by David Plouffe, who also played the role of Pozzo.
The takeoff is superbly funny. The reality, much less so.
Update:
The play, Waiting for Jobs, is scheduled to run through Recovery Summer 4 (2012), and final play reviews will be issued by WTP (We The People) on November 6, 2012.
Mr. Jobs. He quit. Mr. Galt did too.
Here is a catchy tune from 1933 that we can sing to pass the time while we wait.
“If I ever get a job again…I will never be a snob again…I’m through with stocks and bond, I’d rather spend it all on blondes…If I ever get a job again”
Some literary critics believe Jobs is meant to reference the computer savant who until recently led Apple to commercial success. That Jobs understood economic basics like supply and demand, and created excitement every time a new product was announced.
In this interpretation, Axelrod is thought to be longing for a time when Barack and Michelle won cheers for just appearing. The need for performance-based results thus becomes the basis for the tragedy.