Theater Reviews

May 11, 2008 - A tedious "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" holds court at Reno's Redfield Performing Arts Center

By Jack Neal

Imagine, if you can, Perry Mason in hell defending Judas Iscariot. “The Last Days of Judas,” by playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, is being produced at Reno’s Redfield Performing Arts Center by Truckee Meadows Community College Performing Arts.

It’s a courtroom drama that takes much longer (nearly three hours) than a Perry Mason murder mystery to make its point. Guirgis has overfilled his plot with a cast of historical characters all pretty much making the same point. For student actors working with such titanic material it’s hard to keep afloat against Guirgis’s ballast of words.

Congratulations to director Paul Aberasturi and the gallant actors of Truckee Meadows Community College’s Performing Arts Department for tackling this play. If the dialogue weren’t so crude (in most schools fowl language is still a no-no), “The Last Days of Judas,” is so complicated it’s more a provocative class project at a Jesuit school than compelling theater.

By the same author as “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” and “Our Lady of 121st Street,” “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” shares many traits that have made Guirgis’s plays formidable – a penetrating mind, a gift for identifying losers and an unforced eloquence that finds poetry in smutty street talk.

What “Judas” lacks are characters that pulse with personalities of their own. Even more troubling, the vernacular speech substitutes obscenities for real street poetry. At just 15 minutes short of three hours, “The Last Days of Judas” smacks of being more dissertation on a big subject than a play of ideas that stimulates. My recommendation: Skip Act I, it’s endless. Arrive an hour-and-a-half after opening curtain and witness Act II. That’s where the action is.

Set in a courtroom called Hope, somewhere deep in the heart of purgatory, “The Last Days of Judas” ponders the conflict between human free will and divine mercy. If God is all forgiving, then why is Judas condemned to an eternity in hell? It also presents a cram course for those who want to ponder some of the more troubling aspects of Christian theology.

The play opens with anguished pleadings from Judas’s mother who claims her son doesn’t belong in hell because she loved him so much. It ends with a speech from a husband who regrets committing adultery so that audiences can relate to the idea of betrayal. The theme may be one of question and challenge, but winds up – for onlookers - being more about impatience over the play’s self-indulgences.

Many actors, however, deserve a niche in acting heaven. An assured Stacy Arterburn-Johnson pulls heavy duty as Judas’s defense attorney. Brad Ka’ Ai’ Ai’ shines as the sexually compulsive prosecutor. Once past noisy haranguing as the judge, Cecil Averett presents a bitter and dignified Caiaphas of sensitivity. As Mother Teresa, Susan Lang provides comic relief from an unlikely source. Character actor Sue Turbow is an affecting mother of Judas. Jeffrey Bentley provides a powerfully understated Simon the Zealot. As Satan, Ryan Kelly is contemptuous enough to satisfy, proving once again - whether in purgatory or on earth - it’s the devil who steals the show.

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” can be seen May 2, 3, 8 (the performance reviewed), 9, 10 at 7:30 p.m. and May 4 at 2 p.m. at the Nell J. Redfield Performing Arts Center, 505 Keystone Avenue, Reno, Nevada. For information call 775-789-5671.