Jacob's Ladder

Jacob is a highly functioning autistic sociopath who, for reasons that may be real or imagined, has convinced himself that he is the Antichrist. But the “harbinger of hell on Earth” needs followers: cue Beth, Sam, Sal, Jude and Mary, five strangers who are meeting for the first time in Jacob’s garden. They have nothing in common save their apparent dissatisfaction with their current situations in life, and after calling a mysterious help line, have unwittingly volunteered themselves as the first members of Jacob’s “new society,” whose first mission is murder. 

There are moments of real charm and charisma in each of the performances. The play is structured around monologues as each of the characters explains their unfulfilling existence - Beth is especially convincing as the abused army wife discovering feminist literature whilst her husband is away on a tour of duty. There are flashes of real comedic talent in the eloquent wit of the script and the timing of sharp one-liners successfully lifts some of the darkness from the plot.

However, the characters don’t give us enough to care about being, as they are, embodiments of tired clichés with nothing about them to challenge the stereotypes we are all so familiar with. And the patchy nature of the story, combined with the stodgy predictability of the structure and rushed and clumsy ending, ultimately means that this production doesn’t quite fulfil its potential.