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Universitas Sanata Dharma
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English Letters Play 2025: The Second Trial of Judas Iscariot Brings A Thought-Provoking Experience on Stage


Yogyakarta - Students of the English Letters Department at Sanata Dharma University successfully staged The Second Trial of Judas Iscariot at Auditorium Driyarkara on September 7th, 2025. This year, the play turned audience members into jurors who assessed the afterlife fate of Judas Iscariot in the courtroom of Purgatory. 

The script is adapted from the award-winning American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. It questions about where true forgiveness comes from and what it takes to redeem oneself of an unforgivable mistake. 

Seanpaul Lapudooh, the director who initiated the play, explained, “I think we need to encourage people to see mistakes not as malicious, but as what they are often times: mistakes, incompetence, or just a lapse, a moment of like, lapse in concentration. It's so easy to villainize people nowadays, and I think that script was able to flip the narrative on Judas Iscariot, who in my whole life has been described as a villainous person. And I wanted to see if the audience could see themselves in Judas and maybe be a little bit kinder, not only to themselves, but also to others."

The Second Trial of Judas Iscariot presented imagined untold stories about Judas and his involvement in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The first act showcased Judas’ childhood innocence through the lens of his mother, Henrietta Iscariot, the testimony of Simon the Zealot, and Judas’ encounter with Satan upon Jesus’ arrest. Additionally, it presented the reunion of Peter and Matthew in the afterlife.

Mary Magdalene and Thomas opened the second act with their spoken word poem about Judas’s considerable deeds as an apostle. A flashback of Judas’ attempt to recant to Pontius Pilate and Satan’s second appearance on stage followed. 

Attaya, an audience member, expressed, “Then, there was that interactive scene. Super duper interesting, because I was focusing on what was presented on stage, right. Suddenly, apparently, there were people on the left and right sides of the balcony, shouting. That’s dope! I like how you guys built the vibe so that it felt more alive. Then, getting into the ending, when we had to determine Judas’ fate was also quite a surprise for me.”

Toward the end of the show, 13 chosen audience members voted for Judas’ final verdict with either the green and red glow stick that they received from the play committees at the start of the show. Odilia Emmanuela Ayuning Embunpagi, member of the scriptwriter team, shared that two possible endings were intentionally created for the final decision scene. The audience eventually decided to forgive Judas, yet the closing scene remained unaltered by the result. Judas was not able to forgive himself.



“Even though we made a lot of changes to the original script, we did our best to preserve its key conversations and core takeaways,” Odi said. 

She explained that all the scriptwriters agreed to not change much of the last scene. The heartbreaking and brotherly interaction between Jesus and Judas reveals the essential message of the play, that divine mercy means nothing if one chooses to reject it. (AS)

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