Review | ‘The Last Days of Judas Iscariot’

Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a play about Judas in purgatory — and the two lawyers who present their cases to convince the powers that be to send him to either heaven or hell. It’s a courtroom drama with the idea of forgiveness on the stand. Directed by Kendra Ware and presented by the UCSB Department of Theater and Dance, Judas Iscariot is a sometimes comedic drama that leans heavily on the shenanigans of the various summoned witnesses and experts (famous personalities from history) to keep the story engaging.

An issue with courtroom dramas is that they deal with the anecdotal retelling of actions that have already occurred. The stories and flashbacks in Judas Iscariot are expressions of memories, and the audience’s empathy and investment that is built by experiencing moments in real time with the characters is muted. In this production, Judas, played by Michael Seitz, spends most of the play comatose in the bottom of a derelict pool — which is too bad, because Seitz is a good actor and I wish he had more to do in the reach for some level of conclusion to Judas’s story. As it is, the play presents the central conundrum, spends (too much) time arguing about the minutiae of the dilemma, and ends without resolution.

Judas Iscariot does have some noteworthy highlights: the post-apocalyptic-style bathhouse (set design by Ann Sheffield) serving as the courtroom is brilliantly devised for a last-chance, edge-of-the-world, halfway-house vibe. Costume design (by Adriana Lámbarri) offers standard clothing with unusual shapes and lines that remind the audience of this tweaked, dreamlike version of reality. Finally, the performances are robust — maybe even too robust, with the energy of the actors attempting to compensate for the fact that The Last Days of Judas Iscariot treads water.

The show runs through June 4 at the Performing Arts Theater at UCSB (which desperately needs a new air conditioning system). See theaterdance.ucsb.edu.