Fable and Plot Summary

Fable

The play starts out with Nickles and Mr. Zuss who are vendors in a run down circus. You learn very quickly that Nickles and Mr. Zuss will represent Satan and God, respectively and that they will be retelling the story of Job from the Bible. Three different platforms on stage represent Heaven, Earth, and Hell to distinguish what action is happening where. When Mr. Zuss and Nickles are speaking directly as God and Satan and not the circus vendors, they wear specific masks to make this distinction. Next, we meet J.B, his wife Sarah, and their five children having dinner at their home. During this dinner J.B. and Sarah talk about how God has blessed their lives and how the children should be more grateful to God for all the things that they have. The focus shifts back to Nickles and Mr. Zuss having an argument about J.B. and whether or not he is truly devoted to God. They make a bet, Nickles thinks if he takes everything away from J.B. he will curse God and denounce him; Mr. Zuss knows that J.B. is a good man and will stay obedient to God no matter what. With the plan in effect, the first thing that J.B. loses is his son David. Two soldiers who are in the same regiment as David come to J.B. and Sarah's house and tell them that David has died. Next, two more of J.B. and Sarah's children die, this time in a car accident that was caused by a drunk driver. J.B. and Sarah's youngest child Rebecca is then murdered. The only remaining child, Ruth also dies and then J.B.'s bank is destroyed taking his vast fortune away. A nuclear bomb kills thousands and J.B. is wounded, Sarah believes that this is the final straw and that J.B. must denounce God but he will not. Due to this Sarah leaves to go kill herself and J.B. is left completely alone. Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz play the role of the three comforters just like in the bible. However, the three comforters do anything but comfort and just leave J.B. in more pain. J.B. then asks God to show him why he is making him suffer, God demands that J.B. repent and pledge devotion to him and he does. On his way home, J.B. sees Sarah sitting on the porch, she has not killed herself and they embrace grateful that they have not lost everything because they still have each other.

Plot Summary*

Prologue

The first characters to appear on stage in J. B. are Mr. Zuss and Nickles, a balloon seller and a popcorn seller in a run-down circus. They approach and then mount a sideshow stage in the corner of a circus tent to play out the story of Job from the Bible, with the stage as Heaven, the ground as Earth, and the lights as the stars. Zuss (whose name sounds like “Zeus,” the god of Greek mythology) will play God. From the beginning, he is as arrogant as one might expect a man who believes he is right for the role to be, and he is indignant at the idea that Job would dare to demand justice.
Nickles, on the other hand, understands Job’s suffering and does not accept that God would cause that suffering just to prove his authority and power. Nickles sings a song that includes the play’s central paradox: “If God is God He is not good,/If God is good, He is not God.” Nickles, whose name is a variation of “Old Nick,” a slang term for the devil, will play Satan. As the two men point out, there is always someone to play Job.
Zuss and Nickles don masks that they find in a pile of costumes. The Godmask is white, with closed eyes, showing his indifference. The Satanmask is dark, with open eyes, because “Satan sees.” They review their lines, which will come from the King James Bible. When the lights go down for the play to begin, a Distant Voice speaks the first line: “Whence comest thou?” It is not Zuss who speaks but, apparently, God. Zuss and Nickles take over, and the lights dim.

Scene 1

As scene 1 begins, the raised stage where Zuss and Nickels stand is in darkness, while gathered around a table in the light are the wealthy banker J. B., his wife Sarah, and their five children. They are a wealthy New England family, celebrating Thanksgiving. Sarah would like the children to be more thankful for the bounty they enjoy. She believes that there is a kind of bargain with God: “If we do our part He does His.” Our “part” is to thank God; if we forget God, He will punish. J. B. believes that God has chosen him for success and that his duty is to appreciate the gift, to enjoy his life.

Scene 2

The focus shifts again to Zuss and Nickles, whose first impulse is to belittle J. B.’s acting ability. Still, he is their “pigeon,” the man who will play Job. Nickles believes that once J. B. is stripped of his wealth, as Job was, he will lose his piety, but Zuss insists that J. B. will praise God no matter how much he suffers. Why then, asks Nickles, must Job be made to suffer at all? If God knows Job will pass the test, then why administer the test? Because, Zuss answers, Job needs to see God clearly. The two actors put their masks on and speak lines from the Bible. Satan challenges God to a bet: he will take everything away from Job, to demonstrate that even an upright man will curse God if pushed hard enough. God accepts.

Scene 3

Six or seven years have passed. Two drunken soldiers come to J. B.’s house, comrades in arms of David, J. B.’s oldest son. In a bumbling fashion, they reveal that David has been killed — not heroically in the war but accidentally and stupidly by his own men after the hostilities. As Sarah tries to understand that God has really taken her son, J. B. denies that David is really dead. Nickles encourages them to challenge God, but they do not hear him.

Scene 4

On the sidewalk, two reporters talk to a “Girl,” a young woman perhaps in her twenties. They persuade her to approach a couple who will come by soon and to catch their attention so they will be facing the camera when the reporters tell them that two of their children have died in a car accident. The couple, of course, are J. B. and Sarah. The dead teenagers are their children, Mary and Jonathan, killed by a drunk driver when their car crashed into a viaduct. Sarah despairs and asks why God would do this. Nickles, who is visible, grins appreciatively. But J. B. insists that they cannot “Take the good and not the evil.” He tries to embrace Sarah, but she flinches.

Scene 5

J. B. and Sarah talk to two men. The biblical story includes two messengers, and here they are played by police officers. Rebecca, the youngest child, is missing. J. B. did not call the police right away because he imagined that he could find her by himself. Sarah explains bitterly, “We believe in our luck in this house!” The luck again is bad, however. Rebecca has been raped and murdered by a teenaged drug user. “The Lord giveth,” J. B. says, “The Lord taketh away.” But he does not say the end of the line, which Nickels, Zuss, and the audience are expecting: “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Scene 6

Two messengers enter carrying Sarah. She has been rescued from a collapsed building after a bombing destroyed a whole city block. J. B.’s bank is destroyed, and his last remaining child, Ruth, is dead. J. B. urges Sarah not to despair, urges her to say with him, “The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh away.” While Sarah shouts, “Kills! Kills! Kills! Kills! Kills!” J. B. completes the famous line, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Scene 7

Zuss and Nickles discuss J. B. Zuss is pleased with J. B.’s responses so far, but Nickles is disgusted. Although they are playing out a story that both know well, Nickles believes that this time the story will end differently, that J. B. will stop praising God once he experiences physical pain himself. When their argument delays the progress of the story, the Distant Voice begins to speak God’s lines. Zuss and Nickles understand that they are to continue.

Scene 8

J. B. lies on a table, clothed only in rags, with Sarah, also in rags, by his side weeping. An atomic blast has killed thousands, and J. B. is wounded. Women standing nearby comment on the sores covering J. B.’s body and on how far the two have fallen. Sarah is bitter and angry, but J. B. is puzzled. He knows there must be a reason for God’s punishment, but he cannot fathom what the reason is. Nickles observes that if J. B. knew the reason — if he knew that God was making the innocent J. B. suffer simply to demonstrate His own power — J. B. would despair. Sarah cannot accept J. B.’s theory that the family has deserved this suffering. She turns her back on J. B., urging him to “curse God and die,” and she runs out to kill herself. Now completely alone, J. B. begs God to “Show me my guilt.” Nickles sneers at Zuss.

Scene 9

In the biblical story, three comforters come to Job to scold him for questioning God and to “justify the ways of God to man.” Here, the three comforters are Zophar, a Catholic priest, Eliphaz, a psychiatrist, and Bildad, a Marxist. The three spout empty rhetoric and jargon to explain J. B.’s suffering, and they only add to J. B.’s despair. Finally, J. B. cries out, “God, my God, my God, answer me!” In response, the Distant Voice speaks God’s words from the Bible, asserting his power and authority, demanding that J. B./Job repent for daring to ask questions of God. J. B. does, also speaking a line from the Bible, “I abhor myself and repent.”

Scene 10

Nickles acknowledges that Zuss has won the bet, but Zuss is uneasy with his victory. He sees that for Job to forgive God is a sign of Job’s goodness and strength, not God’s. He loses all enthusiasm for playing his role and starts to climb down from the stage, but Nickles reminds him that there is one more scene to play. In the biblical story, God restores everything Job has lost. Nickles is sure that this time J. B./Job will refuse God’s offering, that he will not risk losing everything again. To make sure, he goes to J. B., tells him God’s plan, and begs him to kill himself instead. But J. B. hears someone at the door and goes to meet his future.

Scene 11

Typically, in a play-within-a-play, the outer play “frames” the other, taking the first and last words. But J. B. and Sarah have the last scene to themselves, without the commentary of Nickles and Zuss. Sarah sits on the doorstep, holding a forsythia branch in bloom. She discovered it on her way to drown herself in the river, found hope in it, and came back to J. B. She explains to her husband, “You wanted justice and there was none — / Only love.” People will not find illumination or love from God, but in their own hearts. Sarah and J. B. embrace and then set to work tidying up the stage.

*This plot summary comes from the academic edition of the text, not the acting edition.

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