The Last Days of Judas Iscariot - Almeida Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
RUPERT Goold is to direct the European premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida Theatre – from April 3 (previews from March 28) to May 10, 2008.
Described as a time-bending, serio-comic drama set in an imagined world between Heaven and Hell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot re-examines the plight and fate of The New Testament’s most infamous sinner.
In a trial of “God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot”, figures ranging from Pontius Pilate to Sigmund Freud are called to testify.
Moreover, Guirgis’ distinct and utterly contemporary voice uses the violent, chaotic energy of modern America, and particularly of New York, to explore timeless questions of free will and responsibility, of faith and fate.
Goold is Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre (co-producers of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), where his credits include Rough Crossings, Faustus, Paradise Lost and Restoration. His other theatre work includes The Glass Menagerie (Apollo Theatre), The Tempest and Speaking Like Magpies (Royal Shakespeare Company) as well as Hamlet, Insignificance, Betrayal and Othello all for Northampton Theatre Royal where he was Artistic Director.
His production of Macbeth, with Patrick Stewart in the title role, transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre to the Gielgud in the West End where it concludes on December 1, 2007.
Stephen Adly Guirgis is a longtime member of New York’s LAByrinth Theatre Company. His plays include Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman which, after completing a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run, was seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Donmar Warehouse and The Arts Theatre.
His other plays include Our Lady of 121st Street and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings; while his writing for television includes The Sopranos, NYPD Blue, UC Undercover and Big Apple.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is designed by Anthony Ward, with lighting by Howard Harrison and sound and music by Adam Cork. Casting has yet to be announced.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot received its world premiere at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005, with Philip Seymour Hoffman directing a cast that included Eric Bogosian, John Ortiz and Sam Rockwell.
Cloud Nine is currently playing at the Almeida Theatre.
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