Q&A with Max Wolf Friedlich – the millennial who wrote JOB
We’re nearing the finish line—rehearsals for the final show of our 10th season (and what a sparkstorm of a season it’s been) start next week.
JOB, written by 30-year-old playwright Max Wolf Friedlich (who was just 25 when he wrote it), marks the youngest playwright we’ve ever produced—and we’re thrilled to share our conversation with him!
After a viral moment on TikTok that was followed by a very buzzed-about Broadway run, we caught up with Max to discuss the play’s journey, Gen Z audiences, and why he thinks JOB is basically an octopus. And his top piece of advice for writers? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.
Let's start off with a weird question...
1. If Job were an animal, what would it be and why?
JOB would be an octopus - adaptable, fits in tight spaces and yet bigger than it seems, changes in order to survive, smarter than people think but also slimy and gross, alluring but you wouldn’t want to touch it
2. Please describe your play in three words.
It’s so lame to me when writers are like my thing is EXCITING and THRILLING and SHOCKING. I’m rocking with “come see it”.
3. A lot of publications are saying Job really speaks to the next generation of theatre-goers (Gen Z, to be specific). Was that something you set out to do, or did it just kind of happen?
I wrote the majority of the first draft when I was 25 so I think that’s just what was up with me. I started self producing plays when I was 17 and nothing excited me more than packing out shows with my friends. There's no greater honor than being championed by the youths. Teenagers are the smartest people on Earth and I really do believe that so why wouldn’t you want them at your show? All that said, it’s in the back of my mind but I’m not sitting there being like “let me write the young people play.” I feel misunderstood in a very adolescent, immature way and I think that’s omnipresent in my writing.
4. Job started off-Broadway, then moved to Broadway. Why do you think audiences connected with it so deeply?
I’m the least qualified person to answer this. What has been refracted at me is that A. It’s having a real cross generational conversation and B. It’s eliciting sympathy for someone overwhelmed by the modern world. I think people feel like Jane is an accentuated version of how it feels to live as an entirely online/ entirely offline amalgamation of curated digital identity and a breathing pile of meat.
5. You've mentioned online that the best way to experience Job is to go in knowing nothing about the play. Why is that?
Come see it.
6. How do you feel about Job being produced at the Coal Mine? In what ways do you hope this production will evolve or differ from the New York productions starring Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon?
Thrilled. Y’all were the first to say hell yeah we wanna do this. I am super curious how it will hit for Canadians, if it will maybe read as some kind of commentary on American life. Maybe it’s universal I don’t know. But there is some very American stuff in there that I think will be perceived differently. Overall I love this team and I can’t wait to see them make it entirely their own. Easily the best part of having the play travel is relinquishing control. It’s our play now, not just mine, not just our New York teams.
7. Without giving too much away...what's your favourite moment, scene OR line from Job and why?
Loyd says “I’m not an especially spiritual person - at least not in the traditional sense” and the way Peter Friedman would do it in NY it was like “damn right this guy has a whole belief system we’ll never know or understands” Peter’s reading of that line gave the character years of life outside of the play. Magical and all you can hope for as a playwright. I love that man.
8. What was the most challenging part of writing this play?
It was challenging in the literal sense that it took time and was trying and hard. But writing in collaboration with my producer/dramaturg Hannah Getts and my director Michael Herwitz has been the joy of my life. Working on the play itself was nothing but fun even when it wasn’t. A better answer is it was a challenge to make it all make sense. There was a lot of “if this…. Then that.” But also that made it easier than working in other plays because there were right and wrong answers. I dunno. Writing is fun. Everyone should do it.
9. What's your best piece of advice for any aspiring writer?
All of the best advice is generic and true - be kind, work hard, learn to fail. What changes is your willingness to receive it. Context of that advice is key, where you are in your life. An older TV writer told me to work hard on a zoom and it hit me like a spiritual revelation. I think I was tired of failing and was finally ready - at 24 - to really dig deep and work. But like people had been telling me to work hard since grade school. Something about those words from that guy… it finally clicked.
10. Is there anything else you'd like to mention or say that we haven't touched on?
Canada rules. I’m sure it sucks too, but idk I’m a big fan. I’m flying to Montreal tomorrow for a bachelor party and I’m stoked to get a bagel.
