Did Judas Iscariot really betray Jesus?

From the title alone, you might think Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” is a biblical drama… “Last Days of Judas Iscariot”

Today through Sunday

Today-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Directed by Joanna Getting

Henry Heymann Theatre

www.play.pitt.edu

From the title alone, you might think Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” is a biblical drama about the well-rehearsed New Testament story of Judas betraying Jesus. That the play is in fact about a catatonic, post-suicidal Judas standing trial in hell probably wouldn’t occur to you.

The premise gets stranger. A lawyer from purgatory has decided to appeal Judas’ damnation, and Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, Satan and St. Monica are present to weigh in on the case.

“College students are the perfect audience for this play,” said Joanna Getting, the production’s undergraduate director. “It’s not about the Bible per se — it’s about redemption, forgiveness, not only of others but of yourself. There’s something for everyone: foul language, sexual innuendo, Jesus.”

Guirgis intended the play to have an irreverent surface and serious themes simultaneously.

“The play appropriates Judeo-Christian mythology and modernizes it,” said Brian Shaffer, who plays Satan.

In essence, “Last Days” opposes itself to one-dimensional representations of Judas Iscariot, treating him instead as a complicated figure whose role in Christian tradition is anything but settled.

“There are so many variations on the story,” Getting said. “In one of the Gnostic gospels for example, it says Jesus took Judas under his wing and trusted him to betray him, because his self-sacrifice was necessary. In fact, in my research I’ve found that some of the earlier New Testament translations don’t use the verb ‘to betray’ to describe Judas’ action — they say ‘Judas handed over Jesus.’”

The diverse assortment of witnesses adds to the ambiguity.

“It’s actually Monica who nags God to sign the writ and set the trial in motion. As the mother of St. Augustine, I think she sees a lot of her son in Judas,” said Maria Palombo, who plays St. Monica.

Palombo refers to Augustine’s lifestyle preconversion, when he had a 13-year affair with a Carthaginian woman. Though many of his actions then were sins by the doctrines he later helped to shape,

Augustine’s biography is now considered a model of the availability of forgiveness to most Christian believers.

Of course, a central question of “Last Days” is whether that same forgiveness can be extended to Judas.

Satan doesn’t think so.

“He’s testifying for the prosecution, not the defense,” Getting said. “Judas is Satan’s hood ornament. He doesn’t want him to leave hell.”

As Satan, Schaffer added, “The big thing with Satan is humans are allowed to go to heaven, and he’s been cast out. I think he’s come to a place where he’s accepted that, but others don’t see that in him. There’s a point where he says, ‘I don’t care about good and bad; I care about truth.’”

No one has a definitive claim to truth in “Last Days.” Getting said the play doesn’t resolve with one interpretation of the New Testament trumping the others but rather provokes audiences to consider the nature of truth itself.

“A big theme in the play is the difference between loyalty and honesty,” Schaffer said. “When you think about loyalty, maybe you think about a dog or a soldier, but there’s also loyalty to an idea. And what is truth but loyalty to an idea?”

One of the interests of “Last Days” is its involvement of the audience in the proceedings, in the sense that the play’s open-endedness and experimental presentation should trigger thought in attendees.

“We want the audience to feel like members of a jury,” Getting said.

And of course, there’s the mischievous reimagining of historical characters.

“St. Monica isn’t played like you’d expect — she’s a badass from Brooklyn,” Palombo said.

The play has added depth to the cast and crew’s perception of Judas.

“I think audiences will find him sympathetic,” Palombo said.