Stephen Adly Guirgis is an actor’s playwright. Not only do his plays offer
actors rich opportunities to create memorable characters, but each
play offers an abundance of great roles for them. Already in the past
year, local productions of his Our Lady of 121st Street and In Arabia We’d
All be Kings have given theatergoers the chance to see some of the best
acting of this or any year.  The Black Dahlia’s current production of The
Last Days of Judas Iscariot is no exception. There are 15 actors in the cast
portraying two dozen characters, all but a few of which would be any
actor’s dream to portray.  Thus, regardless of how you might feel about
Judas Iscariot as a play (some might find it rather talky and abstruse),
you can be sure that you will see some of the finest acting in town.

The other two Guirgis plays we’ve seen this season were gritty looks at
New York life, filled with boozers and losers. The Last Days of Judas
Iscariot is quite a different play, taking place in purgatory, where a
catatonic Judas is on trial for his betrayal of Jesus. The Black Dahlia
production takes place at the West L.A.’s Lutheran Church of the Master
(which must be a pretty liberal congregation considering the number of
time the f word and g--d--- are uttered in the course of the play). The
choice of venue is a brilliant one, the church transformed into a very non-
secular courtroom, aided in great measure by lighting designer Mick
Durst.

Director Matt Shakman has elicited brilliant performances from his entire
cast: David Clennon as a truly frightening Satan; a heartbreaking
Suzanne Ford as Judas’ mother; Joshua Wolf Coleman compassionate as
Jesus; Chanet Johnson, a hysterically foul-mouthed Saint Monica; Robert
Machray, effortlessly morphing from the cantankerous courtroom judge
into high priest Caiaphas; the gorgeous and dynamic Susan Pourfar as
attorney Cunningham; Daniel Day Shore, in a very affecting
performance as Judas; Terrell Tilford, an electric Pontius Pilate; and Rick D.
Wasserman, Deborah Puette, Marco Greco, and Rob Nagle, all excellent
in multiple roles. Only Jay Harik’s attorney was a bit too strident for my
tastes.

The play is long (it was nearly 11 when it ended) and requires
concentration, and the ability to sit for nearly three hours on hard
wooden pews, but for those in search of challenging theater, it is a
production well worth seeing.

Lutheran Church of the Master
10931 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles
Through Aug. 26  Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays: 8 p.m
Sundays: 7 p.m.    $20     Box office: 866-468-3399

--Steven Stanley