It was one of a series of adaptations Barclay did on older works - others included Pilgrim's Progress, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Wild Ass's Skin.[2]
The production was much acclaimed; Leslie Rees felt Job was among Barclay's finest adaptations.[3] He had earlier called the play "an eloquent and powerful piece of work. No doubt it will frighten the Woolacotts off the National wavelengths, but the sort of listener who enjoyed The Fire on the Snow — and they are legion - will appreciate the pathos, dignity and great human triumph of this drama."[4]
"The drama of Job opens with a prologue in the mouth of a narrator, and then passes to a council held in
Heaven. Enters Satan, and Jehovah specially questions him concerning Job, the pattern of men Satan is given permission to put Job to the trial of adversity, and so the drama moves to the climax where Jehovah answers Job from out of the whirlwind. Says a great scholar: It (the story of Job) is eternal, illimitable. Its scope is the relation between God and' man. It is a vast liberation, a great gaol-delivery of the spirit of man; nay, rather a great acquittal."[7]
