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What Would Judas Do?What Would Judas Do?

The Stage Posted on Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Religious bores would be seriously mistaken if they decide to picket the latest dramatic creation from stand up comedian and Jerry Springer – the Opera creator Stewart Lee.

What Would Judas Do? is a beautifully touching, intelligent, insightful study of what it was like to be ordinary in the presence of the extraordinary.
Lee presents a purely secular interpretation of the last week of Christ’s life.

Judas is a disillusioned revolutionary – an idea many Biblical historians support – who saw Jesus as the leader who would drive the occupying Romans out of Palestine and bring down the Pharisees’ puppet regime. Narrated from after his own death, Lee as Judas explains why he eventually betrayed Christ.

Lee peppers this tale with his masterful comedy. He is probably the most intelligent stand-up this country has produced in the past 20 years. There is more humour in the pauses between his words than in an entire 20-minute set by most comics.

Judas is irreverent towards Christ, who he sees as a Gandhian figure rather than a Messiah and a man who never fulfilled his potential. Lee uses Judas’ cynical humour to define the role and, through Judas’ own witty observations, the characters of the other disciples.

But, together with director Perrier winner Will Adamsdale, he also explores the frailty of a bunch of ordinary men, trying to understand their charismatic leader. The scenes involving the last supper and Christ’s eventual crucifixion are among the most touching an audience will see in a theatre anywhere. A 250-word review cannot do justice to this play – just go and see it.

The Stage on 21st January 2007. Filed Under: Reviews, What Would Judas Do?
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