the last days of judas iscariot by stephen adly guirgis

“MARY MAGDALENE: My name is Mary of Magdala.

I tell the world the one true thing I know: If my son is in Hell, then there is no Heaven-because if my son sits in Hell, there is no God.” The world tells me that God is in Heaven and that my son is in Hell. On the day of my son's birth I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding. I loved my son every day of his life, and I will love him ferociously long after I've stopped breathing. I remember holding my son, and looking over at my own mother and saying, 'Now I understand why the sun comes up at day and the stars come out at night. The moment the midwife placed him in my arms, I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding. I remember the morning my son was born as if it was yesterday. And though my heart keeps beating only to keep breaking-I do not question why. I was not able to finish burying him before sundown, and I'm not sure if that affected his fate. I discovered his body alone, I dug his grave alone, I placed him in a hole, and covered him with dirt and rock alone. It is not in the natural order of things. Is that really fair? Was Judas the duplicitous master of his own fate, a much-suffering pawn used for Jesus’s ends, or just a man who made a mistake? Set in a courtroom in Purgatory, The Last Days puts Judas’ case to a hilarious, riotous, piercing trial, the results of which are sure to make the inhabitants of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory - and the audience - reconsider what each thought they knew about forgiveness, faith, and the human inside one of the history’s most infamous figures.“No parent should have to bury a child. He is seen as the man responsible for Jesus’s death afterwards, Judas fell into despair and hung himself from an olive tree since then, he has been suffering for his deeds deep in Hell, and will continue to do so for all eternity.

The facts we know are these: Judas was the disciple of Jesus who betrayed his friend and teacher to the authorities. Boasting a large, zany cast of characters, the play asks one of the most plaguing questions in the Christian ideology: What happened to Judas Iscariot?

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking work by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. By Alpha Psi Omega at University of Texas in Austin

The last days of judas iscariot by stephen adly guirgis