'The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot'

By Broadside Correspondent Hali Dayberry

The GMU Players put on four performances of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot , written by the playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, last Thursday through Saturday.

In all, Guirgis has written five full-length plays including Jesus Hopped the A Train and Our Lady of 121st Street, all of which were produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The director for the George Mason University production was Heather McDonald who previously directed the players in The Cripple of Inishmaan. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot captured the essence that humans have the ultimate control over their fate through the use of humor, irony, and the appeal to emotion.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a play that takes place in purgatory in a courtroom called “hope.” It is centered around the trial of Judas Iscariot and focuses on his fate: heaven or hell. Two of the main characters in the play are the defensive and prosecuting attorneys.

Throughout the play, it is discovered that the defensive attorney, who lives in purgatory, has several issues that cause her to doubt her belief in God and his overall power and strength. The prosecuting attorney is a chauvinistic male, who seems to be attracted to anything and everything. His most useful trait, as Satan points out in the play, is flattery, which can get him into trouble.

Throughout the play, the main issues dealt with are why Judas betrayed Jesus, whether or not he was ever remorseful, and if Jesus’ death was Judas’ wrongdoing. These on-the-surface issues cause the audience to be able to see deeper-reaching issues, such as who God is and what our relationship with him is like.

The Butch Honeywell monologue was one of the best scenes, mainly because despite the sad story he told, it gave hope to Judas, who had seemed to have not only given up on himself but also on God. The play ends with a triumph for both Jesus and Judas. In the end, I feel they both get what they were truly looking for.

Throughout the play, humor provided comic relief and made what would have been a very serious play easy to watch and enjoy. The bailiff, played by junior theater and music major Tom Prescott, was a character that provided humor all the way through the play with funny body gestures and by sucking on a lollipop the entire time. He really served no purpose other than to make the audience laugh, which he did well.

Another character that I thoroughly enjoyed was Saint Monica, played by sophomore communication major Maxie Morales. This character was the “heavenly nagger.” Her characteristics were that of a hard-core city girl. She was hilarious and I feel like she really nailed her character.

The strongest characteristic of the play was an appeal to emotion. I don’t think that there was a dry eye in the theater by the ending scene. Although it was a funny play, it was also a play that touched on sensitive subjects, and a play that had characters that were easy for most people to relate to.

This play begins being about Judas and his plight with life, but it ends up being about humanity and our plight with God.

Stephen Adly Guirgis wrote this play about his own struggles with God and his questions for God. However, he concludes the play by saying, “When all else fails—and it always does—I pray.”

The GMU players were successful in their endeavor to perform The Last Days of Judas Iscariot in a way that not only portrayed what the writer meant in his script, but also a method that would speak directly to the heart of the audience.