Imagine this: “Darkness. Rain. A woman emerges from her past.”

These are the opening stage directions for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, the play the Theater and Dance Department will be staging this weekend. The play is written in the style of a courtroom drama that combines a realistic form with the fantastical. The cast of characters include some major religious figures including Jesus, Satan, Judas, Mother Teresa and variety of saints, historically familiar characters like Sigmund Freud and completely fictionalized characters. The play is written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and had its premiere off-Broadway in 2005.

It will be directed by Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Todd Coulter, who said the play’s potential for creative problem solving and its exploration of relationships  drew him to the material. “The play is about the violent rupture of relationships…about the choices we make in our personal relationships that are turning points,” Coulter explained. “You have to make some decision from that point on whether you [decide] to stay in that relationship [which is now] fundamentally altered or whether the relationship gets torn apart [because of the choices you’ve made].”

From a technical point of view, the play allows creativity in design and directorial choices, so that no staging of this play will ever be like another. As the opening stage direction states, a director and the tech crew have had much freedom to realize and interpret the staging as they see it. Coulter also said Strider theater will be reconfigured so that the audience surrounds the stage on three sides, which will make for a theater going experience that is really different and immediate.

While the play uses iconic figures from Christianity, Coulter stressed that the play and his interpretation of it is not blasphemous or mocking the Christian and Catholic traditions. Coulter has spoken to the playwright about the subject matter and explained that Guirgis’ Catholic background has led  him to grapple with the question, “If God is all loving and forgiving, why is Judas in Hell?” in his art. However, the play is not “religious with a capital R.”

Coulter suggested instead, that if the play’s treatment of religious figures causes discomfort, one should give the play a chance as a work of art and consider one’s own discomfort. “[The play] deals with uncomfortable questions, but it is not anti-Catholic or anti-Christian. That’s not [Guirgis’] intent or my intent…It’s a great opportunity for the community to see how art can function to challenge and support our [received] notions of what is accepted.”

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot will be performed this Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Strider Theater in the Runnals Building. Tickets are given on a first come, first served basis, so come early.