The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: An Ambitious Undertaking

By Linda Ayres-Frederick

Custom Made Theatre has ambitiously undertaken a monster of a play in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Guirgis (Our Lady of 121st Street & Jesus Hopped the A Train) is strongly focussed on the issues of his Catholic roots. With 25 characters played by 15 actors running close to three hours, Last Days does not stay within the time frame of Judas’ actual “last days” of biblical history. Rather it jumps back and forth through centuries and locales real and questionable (do Heaven, Hell and Purgatory really exist?) to examine and inquire in a courtroom setting whether Judas Iscariot should be damned for eternity for betraying his beloved, best pal Jesus Christ. The play also attempts to elicit from the over double dozen personae their opinions on despair, morality and salvation.

The courtroom in this small section of Purgatory called “Hope” is where litigation determines the fates of its inhabitants. Thanks to a writ signed by God, himself, Judas Iscariot is on trial, though he sits in a catatonic state in Hell. It isn’t quite clear what his smart and smart-looking defense attorney Cunningham (Edith Reiner) or his wiry prosecutor El-Fayoumy (Ben Ortega) have to gain from winning their side of the case. Release from Purgatory perhaps? Up or down? If it is mentioned, it got lost in the many lengthy esoteric discussions. Whatever the attorneys' stakes, each one is equally zealous to prove her/his point of view.

The opening is an impassioned plea by Judas’s mother Henrietta Iscariot (AJ Davenport) in biblical attire (Costumes by Scarlett Kellum) on the upstage left elevated region of Sarah Phykitt’s multilevel set. Henrietta gets to give a full description of Judas later in court in defense of his questionable moral character. Another more famous mother, Mother Teresa (Brandy Leggett) is called from Heaven as a witness after a long list of her own wrongdoing is brought to light—she apparently took funds from all sorts of immoral types to fund her own projects to help the poor. She also refused to support the Papal declaration to absolve the Jews as “Christ-killers”. Guirgis enjoys finding the holes in the commonly accepted myths of societal heroes.

A punky St. Monica (Corrine Elizabeth Proctor) is one of the more lively characters gyrating verbally and physically in revealing goth attire. Her persistent attempts to get a rise out of Judas fall on deaf ears. Later she shares the stage with Mary Magdalene (Amelia Avila) in a contrapuntal duet in Judas’ defense skewering further holes in stories of Jesus’ marrying or fathering an offspring (ala Dan Brown’s creations). Catz Forsman is memorable as the bearded Freud, St. Matthew and St. Thomas. Judge Littlefield (Lewis Campbell, a late replacement) recuses himself to become Caiaphas whose occasional verbal stumbles belie a Priest unprepared to defend the difficult choice of passing judgment on Jesus as a rebellious Rabbi. Bailiff (Michael Kelly who also plays an enthused Simon the Zealot) takes over the court until the Judge returns. Pontius Pilate (Stuart Elwyn Hall) is called upon to elucidate his part in the matter in Judea--a problem filled part of the Roman Empire he ruled with Mafioso backroom tactics.

With all the talk about his complex personality, Judas (Kristoffer Barrera) is portrayed as a mostly angry fellow when he isn’t sitting mute and staring. Jesus of Nazareth (Charles Lewis III) gets to grapple with Judas as his insistently forgiving—to the point of being cloying about it—friend. Director Brian Katz makes an extended cameo appearance as Butch Honeywell—delivering a refreshingly contemporary monologue on loss and betrayal that would zing even more if it didn’t have to follow so much previous overwriting. Perry Aliado ably fulfills his roles as St. Peter, Matthias of Galilee and a Soldier as does a jaunty Richard Wenzel as the Devil himself completing the ensemble cast.

If you are up for a bit of redundancy, word-play and circular thinking, Last Days offers you the opportunity to contemplate some worthy subject matter. It’s not an easy two and three-quarter hours to sit through, but it offers some talented portrayals of memorable character while taking your mind on a jaunty walk up and down the hills of eternity.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot continues through Oct 30 at The Gough Street Playhouse (formerly The Next Stage) 1620 Gough St (at Bush), SF. Thurs-Sat 8pm; Sun 7pm. Tickets $20-$30 510.207.5774 www.custommade.org/judas