The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons and performed by members of the Actors Studio, is being revived as part of the Studio’s 70th anniversary celebration.

History’s most famous double-cross is under the microscope in this provocative and irreverently funny work. Urban night court in “Hope — a ghetto of purgatory” is the backdrop, with Judas on trial for his betrayal of Christ, his soul left in the balance. A trove of historic witnesses — among them Freud, Mother Teresa, and Pontius Pilate — deliver their testimony with raw honesty and scathing humor. As the play unfolds, audiences are forced (along with the characters) to examine their ideals and ideas of love, divine mercy, free will, and forgiveness, including the notion that evil may not be the presence of hate but the absence of compassion.