On H Street, Purgatory's The Place To Be
"Judas was a dick, but he deserved better."
It's one theory anyway, and is sort of the point of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, the intriguing new work being staged by the gutsy Forum Theater and Dance at H Street Playhouse. The play is set in purgatory, where a prosecutor on a mission (Julie Garner) has decided to try to get Judas Iscariot's (Jason McCool) crimes against God re-tried, so he can escape from his current sentence of eternal damnation.
It takes a few minutes to settle into Stephen Adly Guirgis' "Judas" - the trial set up, at first glance, seems an awfully convenient exercise for exploring the story again, and there is a little more shouting than acting going on during part of the first act. But it turns out the play has quite a bit to say, and the talented cast of performers is more than up to helping it make its case, so to speak.
"Judas" is neither wholly apologist nor blatantly condemning of its titular character, and it still manages to take a stand. The play is trying to convince us how people can be responsible for putting themselves in their own hells, and it's a concept very well demonstrated in both the text and the anguish seen in McCool's and Garner's performances. It also tosses out a few other provocative theories - for example, was Judas trying to prove Christ into taking his message further? It's an idea at odds with the "I am frightened by the crowd\For we are getting much too loud" takes on Iscariot we've seen on stage before. The play meanders into other philosophical areas as well - the mental state of the suicidal, the conception of a perfect god - and offers thoughtful musings that never seem didactic.
As high concept as this all sounds, the play is actually very funny and irreverent - Saint Monica is played with zest by Veronica del Cerro as a nagging mother with attitude (sample dialog: "Fuck them bitches, I birthed the mother fucker," in reference to her son, St. Augustine). Maggie Glauber's cranky take on Mother Teresa is at times side-splitting. She's not the only seemingly out-of-place witness to show up for the action - Sigmund Freud's here as well to talk about Judas' psychological diagnosis.
Director John Vreeke's production showcases meditative performances of characters whose ideas can give us pause - Brian Hemmingsen's Caiaphas makes us question our understanding of Jewish history, Jesse Terrill's doubting Thomas has a strikingly balanced view of Judas, and Frank B. Moorman's Butch Honeywell, a member of the jury, tells a heartbreaking tale of what happens when love is wasted. And for added flash, there's always Jim Jorgensen's Satan. Jorgensen's usually not the most subtle of performers, but he's well-used here as a swaggering Satan whose barbs cut to the core.
It's not rare to see fine ensemble work at the often-overlooked H Street Playhouse (usually home to the ambitious Theater Alliance), but this expert cast reminds us the rarely-packed venue deserves a few more sold-out shows.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot runs through May 4 at H Street Playhouse. Tickets are available online.