The play takes on the large, religious and philosophical questions including the absence or presence of God, the morality of God, justice, remorse and forgiveness. This increased name recognition for this revival of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which originally premiered in 2005 at the Public Theatre. (See David Colman’s June 10, 2011, The New York Times article, “Crosses That Bear the Past”.) Guirgis’s play Motherf*cker with the Hat received a 2011 Tony Award nomination for best play. His mother was an Irish American, who met his father, an Egyptian while vacationing in Cairo. Both of Guirgis’s parents have passed away. The prosecutor, El-Fayoumy, an Egyptian, argues that Judas having committed the one unforgivable sin of despair betrayed the Son of God. She argues Judas must be forgiven and allowed entrance into heaven.

Judas’s defense attorney, Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Adyana de la Torre), is part Irish and part Romanian gypsy. The production at times resembles Comedy Central interspersed with Saturday Night Live sketches, but with no option to change the channel. It almost seems as if Guirgis just could not bear to eliminate some of the characters and dialogue. Yet some scenes are superfluous to the story. Witnesses, including Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, Peter, Matthew, Simon, Mary Magdalene and Judas’s mother, Henrietta Iscariot, have funny lines. Nineteen actors, playing 27 roles, are a bit excessive. However, the more than three-hour production is too long.

In addition to Satan, a macho, sexist Pontius Pilate (Omar Bustamante), and a flattering, sycophantic prosecutor, Yusef El-Faymouy (Eliud Kauffman), give hilarious performances with natural comedic timing and flair. Several talented actors artfully deliver Guirgis’s witty and acerbic lines.

The trial of judas iscariot