The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

The City Theatre, through Aug. 5

Running time: 2 hr, 15 min

The City Theatre Company has taken a big bite with Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. This play – a trial set in Downtown Purgatory – brings to life some of history's most prominent religious figures: Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate, and a handful of saints. Even Satan and Mother Teresa are thrown into the mix. If you are remotely interested in thinking nontraditionally about the Jesus and Judas story, then this play will keep you listening. It is an intellectual exercise as much as a theatrical one.

The idea here is that Judas Iscariot's case is being reconsidered. Perhaps blame should not be placed solely on his shoulders for the death of Jesus Christ. What of Pontius Pilate? What of Caiaphas the Elder? Judas did repent, after all. If God's love is perfect, shouldn't Judas be forgiven? This play functions like a really great lecture in a history of religion course taught by a radical teacher who understands that the material will be more engaging if portrayed by modern archetypes. Pontius Pilate is a frat boy. Mary Magdalene is the girl next door. Satan has a movie-star, false-charm, shirtless thing going. The play asks a horde of questions about what really went down in the Promised Land.

The City Theatre Company's production is not scintillating, but it is sufficient. From this large cast of performers, many of whom play multiple roles, all of the performances are competent, and a handful of them rise to meet the challenge of portraying such well-known, often-imagined figures. Gina Houston kicks the show into gear as Saint Monica, who introduces us to the sympathetic side of Judas Iscariot. Charles Stites creates three nicely distinct characters that each bear witness to their varying impressions of Judas. Yusef El-Fayoumy, the prosecuting attorney for the Kingdom of Heaven, is played by Steve Campos in a wacky circus of gesture and overemphasis. Beth Burroughs does calm, clean work as Mother Teresa and Mary Magdalene. The defense attorney is played by Michelle Keffer, and as written, this character is one messed-up lady, but as played, she is pretty straight. However, Keffer conducts the text well, which is vital to the audience's comprehension. In a show-making performance, Aaron Weisinger plays a dusted-red Satan. A nice choice on the part of the designers, his coloring is not a plastic red but rather a subtle hue, as if Satan is simply sunburned from having stood beside a burning flame of hell for too long. Travis Tinnin, as Judas, does the hard work of sitting still for the greater part of three hours. From the time the house opens until the audience files out after curtain's close, Judas sits in an onstage cell, served up for discussion and observation. Tinnin rarely stirs out of a catatonic stupor, but when he does, it is captivating. The play's best scene is Judas and Satan having a drink at a bar, the former in mortal peril and the latter relishing that terror.

What fun it must be to write for Satan. Guirgis captures the seductive charisma of the devil in one scene and the terrible fury in the next. When the defense attorney attacks God's love, calling it "conditional," it is Satan who takes the stand to defend God's purity with well-chiseled scorn.

Unfortunately, the play's sentimental climax is not so smooth or subtle. It is structured around the confession of one betrayer to another. Butch Honeywell (performed excellently by Wray Crawford) is the foreman of Judas' jury. This common man climbs into the cell to convey the results of the trial, but he winds up confessing his sins. Honeywell is wracked with guilt over the infidelities he committed on earth. After telling a sentimental tale of love lost, he says to Judas, "You may have cashed in silver, but I threw away gold." Though delivered well, it is a hard line to swallow – the final blow to the dead horse. The subject matter of Judas Iscariot is interesting, but at times the mechanics are too visible. We get the point, yet the point keeps getting made. Jesus, played by Jesse Alba, falls into this same trap. He floats irritatingly in and out of scenes, gazing meaningfully at Judas. His pure love is reiterated and then overiterated.

Unless you are well-versed in religious history, both ancient and contemporary, you will learn many a thing from The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. For example, you will learn that Mother Teresa, in her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, said, "I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion." Not one character is left unturned. Each has the light side and the dark side exposed. We are left at the end with Jesus washing Judas' feet as Satan chuckles in the background. Stephen Adly Guirgis gives us questions, questions, questions, without conclusion. Ultimately, it is the jury that determines Judas' fate and thus delivers the evening's most insightful sentiment: Hope is no longer composed of contemplation but rather litigation.