Theatre - The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot

Project Arts Centre, Dublin Until Jul 18 7.30pm €15/€10 01-8819613/14

If the theatre is rooted in religious rituals, the firework career of Stephen Adly Guirgis, largely devoted to tracing the legacy of Christianity in contemporary New York, gives some credence and a lot of charisma to the idea. The church of Adly Guirgis is founded on Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, his breakout success from 2000, leading to the less charitable view that he has since written fewer new plays than new titles.

That's slightly unfair, but his work does depend more on dialogue than dynamic, which is why his 2005 play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, is a challenge, pursuing Judas's legal defence in Purgatory through cross examination and character witnesses (among them Jesus of Nazareth, Mother Theresa, Sigmund Freud and Satan), as Guirgis teases out the nature of betrayal and redemption for the guts of three hours (note the start time).

If that sounds unwieldy, there’s a very good reason not to be put off: Making Strange Theatre Company. Founded by American expats who previously brought their experience and aesthetic to bear on Irish theatre with the bold and playful Hedwig and the Angry Inch and, more recently, Megan Riordan’s Luck, Making Strange is now producing its largest, most ambitious production to date under the direction of Matt Torney. As the next generation of theatre makers properly assert themselves, you can consider this a prayer of the faithful.

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