Review: “JOB” by Max Wolf Friedlich. Directed by Meg Gilbert. Presented by Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Reviewed Jan.14. Through Feb. 15. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com

In his gripping play “JOB” at Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre, Max Wolf Friedlich provides a new perspective about all the reasons we should be worried about the lack of controls on what gets posted to the internet and social media feeds.

We see the toll that disturbing videos have on an overworked young woman whose job is to police one major tech company’s operations and what can happen when she sees too much and uses her own questionable methods to stop the offenders.

That woman is Jane, and when we first see her, she is pointing a pistol at a therapist who is supposed to be evaluating her ability to return to work after a mental health breakdown in her office. The world has seen the viral video of Jane standing on a conference room desk and screaming since it was posted by co-workers who didn’t want to miss an opportunity to film something that might bring them some attention, no matter the damage to others.

Her therapist is an older man named Lloyd, who is trying to help her while escaping what quickly becomes a hostage situation, though Jane doesn’t always seem much of a threat,. even with the gun ever present.

Over 80-taut minutes, we watch as Lloyd tries to get her to open up and face some truths about herself. There is much that Friedlich doesn’t delve into – like why did Jane first see a therapist at age 9? – but he reveals enough for us to get some understanding of what led to her breakdown and the dangers of sending her back to work.

And Lloyd can’t understand why Jane is so desperate to return to a job that so clearly causes her stress. She needs to help people and stop the dangers because, she says, there’s no one else who can do it, but it is disturbing to see how far she will go to prove that point.

The Urbanite production, nicely paced by director Meg Gilbert, makes you feel like you are eavesdropping on a real therapy session, in the well-appointed and comfortable office designed by Steve Mitchell.

Despite the high tension of the play’s opening moments, Gilbert makes it all seem real and believable with Casey Wortmann as Jane and David Breitbarth as Lloyd building a terrific, compelling rapport. Breitbarth brings out a wonderful mix of compassion, fatherly comfort and nervousness as Lloyd tries to work around the threat on his life to truly help Jane. Wortman goes through an emotional ringer during the story, sounding calm and rational at one moment and then suffering PTSD-like flashbacks triggered by a word, phrase or one of the sound cues designed by Louis Vetter Torres.

Friedlich’s play is a warning and a condemnation about the internet and social media. It has gotten too big and too broad for any individual to have much impact, but he makes us realize how varied the dangers can be.