The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

Infobox Play
name = The Last Days of Judas Iscariot


image_size = 250px
caption = "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" Original West End Poster
writer = Stephen Adly Guirgis
chorus =
characters = Judas
Jesus
Satan
Henrietta Iscariot
etc
mute =
setting = Heaven
Purgatory
Earth
date of premiere = April 2005
country of Origin = Public Theatre, New York City
original language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Comedy
Drama
web =
playbill_event =
ibdb_id = "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" is a 2005 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, which imagines lawyers battling Judas' right to go to Heaven in Purgatory. It includes flashbacks to an imagined childhood, and the lawyers call up such witnesses as Mother Teresa, Caiaphas, Sigmund Freud and Satan. The original production was at the Public Theater on Broadway, and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Play History

Writer/actor Stephen Adly Guirgis first came to the public eye with his play Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, which started a relationship with accalaimed actor and theatre director Philip Seymour Hoffman. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was a result of their collaboration and the ensemble nature of New York's LAByrinth Theater Company. The original production was directed by Seymour Hoffman in 2005 at the Public Theater in New York.

Production History

Original Broadway Production

The original production was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the cast included Eric Bogosian (Satan), Líza Colón-Zayas (Gloria/Mother Teresa/Ensemble), Jeffrey De Munn (Judge Littlefield/Caiaphas the Elder/St. Matthew), Yetta Gottesman {Loretta/Mary Magdalene/Ensemble, Craig "Mums" Grant (Matthias of Galilee/Delayne/St. Peter/Soldier 2/Ensemble), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Pontius Pilate/Uncle Pino), Salvatore Inzerillo (Bailiff/Simon the Zealot/Ensemble), Adrian Martinez (Boaz the Assyrian Thief/Sigmund Freud/St. Thomas/Soldier 1), John Ortiz (Jesus of Nazareth), Sam Rockwell (Judas Iscariot), Elizabeth Rodriguez (Saint Monica/Soldier 3/Ensemble), Deborah Rush(Henrietta Iscariot/Sister Glenna/Ensemble), Kohl Sudduth (Butch Honeywell, Ensemble) Callie Thorne (Fabiana Aziza Cunningham) and Yul Vázquez (Yusef El-Fayoumy). It was designed by Andromache Chalfant, and ran for 2 hours, 40 minutes, with one intermission. [ [http://www.curtainup.com/lastdaysofjudasiscariot.html The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at CurtainUp] ]

Original West End/European Production

The original West End/European Premiere was at the Almeida Theatre, and was directed by Rupert Goold, and it ran from the 28^th of March to the 10^th May 2008. The cast included (in order of appearance) Amanda Boxer (Henrietta Iscariot), Dona Croll (Gloria/Mother Teresa), Corey Johnson (Judge/Saint Peter), John Macmillan (Bailiff/Simon the Zealot), Susan Lynch (Fabiana Aziza Cunningham), Mark Lockyer (Yusef El-Fayoumy), Jessika Williams (St Monica), Poppy Miller (Loretta/Sister Glenna/Mary Magdalene), Ron Cephas Jones (Uncle Pino/Pontius Pilate), Shane Attwooll (Butch Honeywell), Joseph Mawle (Judas Iscariot), Josh Cohen (Matthias of Galilee/Freud/St Thomas), Gawn Grainger (St Matthew/Caiaphas the Elder), Douglas Henshall (Satan) and Edward Hogg (Jesus of Nazareth). It was designed by Anthony Ward. [Original West End Program (physical source)]

Reception

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was received fairly positively. Curtain Up gave it a positive review, specially mentioning Eric Bogosian's portrayal of Satan. [ [http://www.curtainup.com/lastdaysofjudasiscariot.html Curtain Up Review] ] NY Mag however said that for $50 a ticket, "LAB might eventually want to put forth a finished product." [ [http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/11295/ NY Mag Review] ]

The original West End production was met with almost unanimously positive reviews, The Hollywood Reporter calling it "funny, profound and wildly entertaining", praising "sensational performances", [ [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?JSESSIONID=HwDDLQJG3F3vFdFRcjNR3TJ2PHvJ5JqGRjdzC222K17DB0kvyvyY!816340611&&rid=10947 The Hollywood Reporter West End Review] ] and Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph starting his review with "it's hard to know where to begin with this astonishing play that knocked me for six at the Almeida", and finishing with "Guirgis and Goold have a sensational hit on their hands." [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/07/btjudas107.xml Charles Spencer Telegraph Review] ] Times Online however gave it 3 stars out of 5, saying "too much New York, maybe. One doesn’t want an earnestly pious, reverential play. But do we want one which tries to make big, big issues palatable by coating them not with sugar but, at times, with bubblegum?" [ [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3671187.ece Times Online Review] ]

References

External links

* [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3671187.ece "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Times Online]
* [http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/03_02_05.html "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Talking Broadway]
* [http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/11295/ "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Ny Mag]
* [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?JSESSIONID=HwDDLQJG3F3vFdFRcjNR3TJ2PHvJ5JqGRjdzC222K17DB0kvyvyY!816340611&&rid=10947 "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Hollywood Reporter]
* [http://www.curtainup.com/lastdaysofjudasiscariot.html "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Curtain Up]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/07/btjudas107.xml "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at The Telegraph]
* [http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=1784 "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at Broadway World]
* [http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/08/224453.php "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" at BlogCritics]