Urbanite Theatre has made something of a habit of producing two- or three-character plays that are intense, funny-dark, and even harrowing. Its current offering, Max Wolf Friedlich’s JOB, fits that bill and then some.

JOB (the capitals are intended by the playwright, and, one assumes, so is the reference to the Bible book of that name) opens with very nearly a bang, as a young woman, Jane (Casey Wortmann), points a gun at Loyd (David Breitbarth) in his therapy office setting. She doesn’t really seem about to use it, but you can’t be sure, as her presence is a volatile one, swinging back and forth between calm, rational behavior and hostility.

She’s there because she needs Loyd to sign off on her return to work at a San Francisco Bay area tech company (think Google, but don’t say it aloud) after her prolonged and loud breakdown at work one day went viral. As we learn more about her job, it seems no wonder that a breakdown might occur; it’s up to Jane to police the internet by removing shocking, violent imagery, and while she claims to love the work—she’s proud to suffer for a righteous cause—it’s obviously taken its toll.

Loyd, in a spot that’s part therapy session, part hostage situation, seems the right person to calm her down. He’s got all the right art on his walls, all the right therapist speak on his tongue, and a convincing aging hippie mellow vibe. The two engage in dialogue that’s occasionally funny, often smart, and sometimes revealing. But there are moments—let’s call them glitches—where Jane vanishes into her mind/memories, with lighting and sound cues that suggest horrific experiences, whether they’re involving a car crash, a buzzsaw, or some pornographic moaning and groaning. Not sure that one session in a shrink’s office is going to get the "job" done for her, if you know what I mean.

Wortmann is excellent as the troubled but somehow strong Jane, matched by Breitbarth (a longtime familiar face from his work at Asolo Rep, but a newcomer to Urbanite), whose weapons against her gun are nothing but a notepad and a pen, along with his training. Under the direction of Meg Gilbert, JOB is tensely paced and quite a rollercoaster ride, one that lasts about 80 minutes or so with no intermission.

But the sudden ending to the play, which is deliberately ambiguous, is bound to divide viewers, who will ask themselves, “What just happened here?” That ending will be a bigger “but” for some viewers than others, those who may find it implausible and out of left field. Plus, Friedlich’s short play does rather tend to toss everything—self-harm, suicidal thoughts, bad parenting and an abortion, etc.—into the mix, except perhaps for the proverbial kitchen sink.

Still, JOB is worth seeing and talking about after—well-performed and directed, although it will make most of us want to go home and somehow scrub the entire internet.

The play continues through Feb. 15; for tickets, call (941) 321-1397 or visit urbanitetheatre.com.