In the following essay excerpt, McWilliams discusses MacLeish's play and its resemblance to the Book of Job.Commercially and critically, MacLeish earned the great bulk of his reputation as playwright with J. B. Originally staged by the Yale School of Drama in April 1958, J. B. played at the Brussels World's Fair in September and opened at the ANTA Theatre in New York on 11 December 1958. After a run of 364 performances, the play closed on 24 October 1959. In published form, J. B. was a best-seller and translated into many foreign languages. Later productions were mounted in many nations including England, France, Egypt, Israel, and Mexico.

Essentially the Book of Job transplanted into the twentieth century, J. B. asks how man, with dignity and hope, can love and serve a god who allows so much evil to exist in the world. The action unfolds under a giant circus tent, recreating the...