There are times in life when long-held prejudices are changed. The change comes unexpectedly and sometimes without warning.
Such a moment came for me when I saw The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Stroud’s Baptist Hall.
This is a play set in a court in Purgatory that you will have never seen before. A cast from the RATS Theatre Group brought it to life with vigour, humour (sometimes), and a commitment to excellence rarely seen.
The ‘characters’ included Jesus, Pontius Pilot, Satan, Mother Theresa, Mary Magdalene, Sigmund Freud, the Saints Matthew, Peter and Thomas, Judas’ mother and Judas Iscariot himself. Among others.
Was Judas’ death and notoriety warranted or not? That is the underlying question.
It begins with his mother telling how Judas, her then eight-year-old son, squandered fish needed to feed her other children. Instead he had brought to her a spinning top trophy.
The prosecution claim this is evidence of how bad he was? But he was only eight, the mother (played delicately by Louise Ashcroft) cries out in defence.
Judas is a play which stretches the senses and under the direction of Susan Lynch (you may have seen her in Happy Valley as well as many other important roles) it brings life to words and emotions in spectacular fashion.
Playing to packed houses on Thursday to Sunday inclusive, Judas explores the way filmed inserts can help break up a narrative with style and grace. Take the Judge in the court, played by Jesse Carrington, who is filmed receiving a massage from – wait for it – a barely visible Ash Loveridge, Editor of Stroud Times.
This is inspired direction. And through out the performance there are vignettes to break the drama of the trial where Judas is the accused.
Saint Monica (Laura Bayston) had the audience applauding during the play with the verve and humour she brought to the role; Satan (John Byford, in his first acting role), had an arrogance that was strangely attractive; Mother Theresa (Emma Wilkes), hard of hearing and taken to romancing the prosecutor, was both sympathetic and sure-footed…and so it goes on.
It seems unfair to single out specific performances in a cast that was moulded to its cause.
But Laura Ashcroft, the defence lawyer Fabiana Azza Cunningham, and character name El-Fayoumy, the Egyptian prosecutor (played by Matt Connors-Jones), were beautiful adversaries. These were big parts with big players. El-Fayoumy had fire in his belly and sexual conquest – as well as court room success – in his heart. The reaction of Cunningham was to concentrate on the case at hand…. but she could not resist coquetish response when told once more that he loved her legs!
Such fun lightens the mood.
So what is it that changed my prejudice mentioned in the first sentence?
Well, many years ago as a junior moving out into the world of journalism I became theatre critic at the Windsor, Slough and Eton Express. Over two years I saw in the ballpark of 100 plays.
About half were professional performances and half Amateur Dramatics. It put me off theatre, except for musicals. I was suffering from play overkill and vowed never to see another.
Judas and one evening in Stroud with Susan Lynch and her team changed that.
I can see that plays can have originality and talent sometimes way beyond expectations.
Will I see more plays? Probably not in numbers. Will I appreciate them more? Most definitely.
So a big Thank You to Susan and RATS.. You have changed my life. For the better.
I wish there was more room to praise the cast, so for the record these are the others that appeared. They all deserve a round of applause: Stephen Wilson-Fforde, Leigh Alliss, Neil Page, Victoria Ashcroft, Pam Wise, Nat Selman, Matt Howard, Kerr McKendrick, Dan Stirling, Dan Rebbeck and Abriella Bierer.
A word for the backroom staff who excelled. The team deserving of plaudits was: John Harkin, Pete Barnes, Amy Gardner, Luke Smith, Rhidian Stoddart, Jenny Bowers, Julia Davies, Matt Bigwood, Abriella Bierer, James Krisyk and Mia Ashcroft.
The producers were Victoria Ashcroft and Poppy Chandler.
