The subsequent scenes portray a series of tests (perhaps similar to those trials of Job) by the Jews, Romans and Greeks to try the faith of Lazarus.
[2][3][4] The smaller scale, but still sizeable, European premiere was staged in 1971 by the American Repertory Theater in Europe (ARTE) with a cast of over 40 mostly student actors performing 150 different roles.
"For a bit of extra strength the title role (was) entrusted to Paul Abbott of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
Lazarus, characterized early in the play as a man who in life was nothing but a bungling farmer, is reminiscent of Robert Mayo, but now transformed and exalted by his journey beyond the farthest horizon.
Tiberius Caesar, Pompeia and Miriam also bring into sharp focus in a specifically religious context human characteristics in which, earlier, O’Neill has sensed a "faint indication" of spirit.In Lazarus Laughed, however, we have a positive and joyous assertion of the will to live, a proclamation made by an idealistic prophet who is tortured by no doubts, a man so sure of his message that he has actually banished death from his world; but O'Neill took care to put this prophet into a world two thousand years younger than it is now.