![\"\u2018Judas\u2019](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/judas.jpg\" "\\"judas\\"")
<\/a> New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis is on the San Diego boards once again, this time thanks to Triad Productions, whose staging of Guirgis\u2019 2005 off-Broadway play, \u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot,\u201d is the theater company\u2019s most successful to date. Fans of chewy work such as Guirgis’ must not miss the engagement. Of those seen locally, \u201cJudas\u201d is Guirgis\u2019 most engaging and confounding.\n In recent years, due mostly to Al Germani\u2019s Lynx Theatre, San Diego theatergoers have seen Guirgis\u2019 \u201cJesus Hopped the \u2018A\u2019 Train,\u201d \u201cIn America We\u2019d All Be Kings\u201d and \u201cOur Lady of 121st Street.\u201d The New York Times\u2019 Ben Brantley dubs him the \u201cauthor of ferociously emotional works,\u201d an appellation that certainly applies to \u201cJudas,\u201d in which he sets up the notorious Biblical betrayer\u2019s trial in purgatory.
\n Guirgis ordinarily deals with society\u2019s outcasts, and no one is more outcast than Judas, whose very name has become synonymous with evil. One of Jesus Christ\u2019s 12 apostles, Judas ratted on Jesus, divulging his whereabouts to the Romans, paving the way for the crucifixion, which was supported by Jews and Romans alike. Among those who condemned Jesus initially was Pontius Pilate, as played by Merrick McCartha, one of the Guirgis\u2019 most riveting characters, along with Henrietta Iscariot (Anna Rebek), Judas\u2019 mother. Henrietta launches the play with a passionate speech about her reviled son. As portrayed by James Cota and written by Guirgis, Judas is ragged, abused and hopeless for most of the play\u2019s two-and-one-half hours. But this is not a play about Judas, who is so self-defeated and self-condemned that he is unmoved to action even when offered paradise.
\n Lest one assume that \u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u201d is a heavy slog, be assured that it is extremely funny even though it concerns love and forgiveness — of self, God and others. It is not for the \u201clanguage\u201d squeamish, nor for those who would cry \u201cBlasphemy!\u201d It is rooted deeply in the nitty-gritty of our multiracial society, the human condition, and our inability to accept a God that loves us, no strings attached. Thus it is a deeply religious, deeply confrontational work, depending upon one\u2019s philosophy and views.
\n The major characters are prosecuting attorney Yusef El-Fayoumy (Kris Zarif), defending attorney Fabiana Cunningham (Samantha Ginn) and a southern judge named Littlefield (the excellent Charles Peters, who also provides a riveting Caiphas the Elder). Others in the large company are Scott Andrew Amiotte, Brian Burke, Brendan Cavalier, Lynae DePriest, Carolyn Henderson, Patrick Kelly, Kevin Morrison, Sacha Smith and Joseph Tyrer.
\n Charged with directing this densely-packed play, rife with a confusing array of characters, is Steve Schmitz in his Triad directorial debut. His major error is beginning with a long and uninteresting \u201cwarm-up\u201d scene that prevented audience and actors from settling down opening night, Jan. 2. Would that the talent — Ginn and Zarif in particular suffer a decided lack of consonants in their rapid-fire delivery — was consistently as fine as his staging and the effective purgatory created by lighting designer Jason Bieber, scenic designer Kristen Flores and sound coordination\/engineering whiz Shaun Rosten. Crispness is a challenge when there is so much to say in so short a time, partly the fault of the playwright and partly the space, but attention needs to be paid to articulation. The challenging piece deserves no less.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u201d continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays through January 30, The Tenth Avenue Performance Annex, 930 10th Ave., downtown, $20 ($10 students and military), www.triadprod.com.<\/p>\n
Charlene Baldridge is a member of the San Diego Critics Circle with more than 30 years experience writing about the arts.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Judas\u2019 on trial at Tenth Avenue Performance Annex By Charlene Baldridge New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis is on the San Diego boards once again, this time thanks to Triad Productions, whose staging of Guirgis\u2019 2005 off-Broadway play, \u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot,\u201d is the theater company\u2019s most successful to date. Fans of chewy […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":243121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Judas\u2019 on trial at Tenth Avenue Performance Annex","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}