Judas Kiss at Actor’s Express -- A tragedy of the heart

The “nudity and explicit content” warning I read before seeing this play didn’t prevent my surprise as the play opened with a fully nude sex scene between the butler and the maid. Interrupted by a vigorous knock on the door the maid covers herself and rushes off set. The butler doesn’t. The audience is faced with full frontal male nudity. Brody Wellmaker who played Arthur, the butler was…uh…remarkable well equipped to play this role!

Answering the door to find the maître d'hotel they quickly dress and clean the room to prepare for their guests. Oscar Wilde (played by Freddie Ashley),  his companion and fellow poet Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (played by Clifton Guterman) and friend and former lover, Robert Ross (played by Christopher Corporandy) soon fill the room.

Act I: “Deciding to Stay” takes place while Wilde, the noted Irish writer and poet is on trial for ‘acts of gross indecency’ for his relations with young men. Robert begs him to flee and avoid arrest. Bosie urges him to stay and fight the accusations.

Act II: “Deciding to Leave” takes place near Naples after Wilde has endured two years in prison and has reunited with Bosie.

The play is beautifully cast. Jullian Fratkin as the hotel maid, ‘Phoebe’ has few lines but her facial expressions make words unnecessary. As the reserved and sensible ‘Robert’, Christopher Corporandy’s understated looks and gestures convey his devotion to Wilde and conflict over his friends choices. Clifton Guterman portrays Wilde’s young companion, ‘Bosie’ as passionate about his cause and innately self-indulgent. He’s every bit the princess! Freddie Ashley is outstanding as ‘Oscar Wilde.’ The abundant lines consist of articulation and turn of phrase worthy of an accomplished poet. Ashley delivers them with the thoughtfulness and profundity of a well-seasoned actor. The difference in his demeanor from Act I to Act II clearly reflects that the character’s time in prison has taken a toll.

Many betrayals are of the swift intentional knife-to-the-back variety. The one portrayed here is a long, slow, agonizing kind that starts as insensitivity and grows like a cancer spreading through the relationship until it is destroyed and the person dispirited beyond recovery. If this accurately portrays the life of Oscar Wilde it is a tragedy of the worst kind.

The Judas Kiss will leave you contemplating the how and why of love and the extremes we will go to for adoration.

Warning: This production contains nudity and explicit content.