Hey Judith, Don't Make It Bad

I would first like to say that while reading Howard Barker’s Judith, I could not help but diagnose Judith with an array of mental illnesses. Though, I guess a mental illness in 2013 had many more names in biblical times, the time period the character of Judith is based in. When thinking about the major dramatic question of the play, there are many I think could serve the purpose of a production, but the one that might most effectively do this would be the question of “Can the connection with the Holofernes be strong enough to make Judith morally unable to kill him?”. When I say strong connection, I do not mean some romantic connection but rather some sort of intrigue that would have made Judith change her mind. Although Holofernes was ultimately killed, it was not by the hand of Judith so the answer to my proposed major dramatic would be yes. Of course, you could argue that she would have eventually killed Holofernes if the Servant wouldn’t have but that isn’t what the playwright wrote. Nothing Holofernes said was particularly flattering to Judith but he said some really profound ideas about death and about what’s actually honorable vs. what people think is honorable and I think all this insight made Judith want to stick around figure him out. She was intrigued or she wouldn’t have put off killing him for so long. She does, however; confess after Holofernes’ slain that, “I was. So fucking silly. Nearly fucked it, didn’t I?” but it’s always easier to judge our actions in hindsight rather than as they are happening, isn’t it?