BWW Reviews: THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, St Leonard's Church, April 20 2013

Somewhere between heaven and hell, Judas Iscariot is appealing his eternal damnation. Though the judge is a redneck from the antebellum South, his lawyer is a New Yorker who died before feeling the sting of the financial crisis of 2007. Witnesses, including Sigmund Freud, Mother Teresa and even The Devil himself, are called and we learn something of the man behind The Kiss and something of the politics of first century Judea. If that sounds like a bit of a bad dream after too many cheeses (and not enough Jesus), the wit, wisdom and whimsy of Stephen Adly Guirgis' play entertains as well as informs.

Michael Aguilo, suggesting a little of the young Al Pacino, does a splendid turn as the obsequious prosecuting attorney but even his egregious creeping is outdone by "Lu" - Jeremiah O'Connor as The Prince of Darkness himself, chatting with a drunk Judas, flirting with the audience and hogging the limelight to make his case as a fallen Angel who isn't that bad after all.

If they provide the comic cuts, the serious stuff is in the hands of Laurence Bouvard, railing against the hypocrisy of the Church and a beautifully understated Peter Marinker as Caiaphas the Elder, getting to the nitty-gritty of why Jesus was handed over to the Romans for the inevitable consequence.

Spectacularly presented in St Leonard's Church, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a play that does not shy away from big ideas. There's poetry and humour to leaven the philosophy and no little power in the arguments. When Jesus arrives for the denouement, it's almost a relief to find him as the familiar figure from so many other presentations of The Passion. Only this time, it all makes perfect sense.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot continues at St Leonard's Church until 19 May.

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