“There’s a concept, Cunningham, called “playing the card you are dealt” – one can either accept that concept, or, one can slowly lose their mind, heart and soul."
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot premiered in the UK back
in 2008 at the Almeida with a colourful and sharp production from Headlong.
Producer/director and latterly actor Antony Law’s revival down the road in St
Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch has removed the colour for an altogether more
severe aesthetic and, although there are two sets of cushions on the pews, it
is a severity that punishes your posterior as much as anything. The setting of
the church has a sombre beauty and occasional acoustic challenges aside, offers
a grandeur to this courtroom-set drama with its Alice-in-Wonderland-style oversized
judge’s platform but Law rarely exploits the potential of this unique venue and
the production suffers a little for it.
Set in Purgatory, the point where souls await their ultimate destination of
either heaven or hell, Guirgis puts Judas in the dock and in something of a
show trial, a vastly eclectic range of witnesses are called not just to explore
the reasons behind his betrayal of Jesus but a wider examination of what it
means to be good or to be responsible. So contemporaries like Pontius Pilate and
Caiaphas the Elder are interrogated for their culpability whilst luminaries
such as Sigmund Freud and Mother Teresa find themselves under the spotlight as
their reputations are questioned too. It’s a heady mixture of intellectual
argument and showboating pizazz, difficult to pull off and only intermittently
successful here.
The gravitas of the more serious side never really rings true, led by a
performance from Laurence Bouvard as defence attorney Fabiana Aziza Cunningham
which is a little too one note and devoid of the subtleties necessary to pull
us into her argument. She is not helped by the blank canvas that Priyank
Morjaria conveys as Judas, so passive a figure even in flashback that it is
hard to credit all the fuss being made over him. This air of faux-sincerity
creeps in elsewhere too – Peter Marinker’s Caiaphas a stand-out exception along
with the genuine humility of Tom Greaves’ Jesus – and it is in these moments
that one really feels the somewhat indulgent length of the piece, especially in
the coda.
Where this production does succeed is in the flashier, funnier side of things
with a series of vivid portrayals that grip the attention. Michael Aguilo’s
sycophantic prosecuting lawyer smarms and creeps marvellously, Shereen
Russell’s Saint Monica wisecracks and flirts viciously, Kathy Trevelyan’s
Mother Teresa almost heretically amusing. And proving that the devil always
gets the best parts, Jeremiah O’Connor shines as a sharp-suited Satan, all
suave swagger until provoked into unleashing a devastatingly well-played tirade
that is the show’s highlight. One is tempted to return a hung jury for this
uneven production of an uneven show but in the end, the highs probably outweigh
the lows.
Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 19th May
Labels: Christopher Wolert, Jeremiah O'Connor, Kathy Trevelyan, Laurence Bouvard, Lawrence Werber, Maggie Robson, Michael Aguilo, Peter Marinker, Priyank Morjaria, Shereen Russell, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Tom Greaves
