Jerusalem (Royal Court)
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Review
Unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century --Guardian
A new play of irrepressible energy, wonderful wit and wild wonder. --Sunday Express
An invigorating, yelping, defiant portrait of 21st century shires England. --Daily Mail
Proves to be even better than its ecstatic publicity suggests. --Independent
Refreshing, humane, touching and wickedly funny. --Evening Standard
Spellbinding, exuberant and glowingly atmospheric. --Time Out
An instant modern classic. --Daily Telegraph
A hilarious, enchanting, affecting evening...one of the juiciest roles in living memory --The Times
A riveting hymn to England. --Daily Express
This play, this production, this performance are sensational. --The Financial Times
Jerusalem will surely wind up trailing trophies like pots on a tinker's wagon. And it's easy to see why. --Daily Mail
Jerusalem is a great frame-busting play that still exists solidly within a conventional framework. It could have been written in almost any year from the 1920s onward. Yet this work takes you places distant, out-of-time places that well-made plays seldom do. And it thinks big transcendently big in ways contemporary drama seldom dares.
One of the indispensable things that art does is find grandeur in unexpected places. Shakespeare saw it in a fat, craven gourmand named Falstaff; Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Rylance have located it in another hedonist and fabulist. While refusing to make him heroic, or even likable in any traditional sense, Jerusalem persuades us to accept Johnny as one of the last of the titans, a man who taps our lust for life lived large and excessively, without social restraints. He incarnates the spirit of a mythic England that may never have been but that everyone, on some level, longs for.
We theatergoers too are starved for a sense of the mythic, for performances we can talk about with glassy-eyed rapture in the years to come. Mr. Butterworth, Mr. Rickson and Mr. Rylance have provided us with that opportunity. Except in this case the mythic is no mere myth. Mr. Rylance also captures to a degree I can imagine no other contemporary actor doing Johnny's vast, vital, Falstaffian appetite for pleasure, for independence, for life itself. His Johnny Byron is truly a performance for the ages. --New York Times
I hope that the majority of people who haven't had the chance to see Jerusalem might get enough of a dim, distant echo to perhaps go out and read the play. --Andrew Marr on BBC News
A new play of irrepressible energy, wonderful wit and wild wonder. --Sunday Express
An invigorating, yelping, defiant portrait of 21st century shires England. --Daily Mail
Proves to be even better than its ecstatic publicity suggests. --Independent
Refreshing, humane, touching and wickedly funny. --Evening Standard
Spellbinding, exuberant and glowingly atmospheric. --Time Out
An instant modern classic. --Daily Telegraph
A hilarious, enchanting, affecting evening...one of the juiciest roles in living memory --The Times
A riveting hymn to England. --Daily Express
This play, this production, this performance are sensational. --The Financial Times
Jerusalem will surely wind up trailing trophies like pots on a tinker's wagon. And it's easy to see why. --Daily Mail
Jerusalem is a great frame-busting play that still exists solidly within a conventional framework. It could have been written in almost any year from the 1920s onward. Yet this work takes you places distant, out-of-time places that well-made plays seldom do. And it thinks big transcendently big in ways contemporary drama seldom dares.
One of the indispensable things that art does is find grandeur in unexpected places. Shakespeare saw it in a fat, craven gourmand named Falstaff; Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Rylance have located it in another hedonist and fabulist. While refusing to make him heroic, or even likable in any traditional sense, Jerusalem persuades us to accept Johnny as one of the last of the titans, a man who taps our lust for life lived large and excessively, without social restraints. He incarnates the spirit of a mythic England that may never have been but that everyone, on some level, longs for.
We theatergoers too are starved for a sense of the mythic, for performances we can talk about with glassy-eyed rapture in the years to come. Mr. Butterworth, Mr. Rickson and Mr. Rylance have provided us with that opportunity. Except in this case the mythic is no mere myth. Mr. Rylance also captures to a degree I can imagine no other contemporary actor doing Johnny's vast, vital, Falstaffian appetite for pleasure, for independence, for life itself. His Johnny Byron is truly a performance for the ages. --New York Times
I hope that the majority of people who haven't had the chance to see Jerusalem might get enough of a dim, distant echo to perhaps go out and read the play. --Andrew Marr on BBC News
Product Description
An Instant Modern Classic. A comic, contemporary vision of life in our green and pleasant land. BEST PLAY Evening Standard Awards BEST PLAY Critics Circle Awards. On St George's Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron, local waster and modern day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his children want their dad to take them to the fair, Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dear fellow theatre lovers,
I can only recommend this play to you. I'm from Germany and saw the stage production in London's West End, because the title made me curious as I know the hymn "Jerusalem" and I had one of the best theatre evenings in years! As English is not my mother tongue I decided to read the play as well, because I really would not want to miss any of the jokes and satire in it. It's fresh, it's witty, it's entertaining as well as bitter to swallow.
I can only recommend this play to you. I'm from Germany and saw the stage production in London's West End, because the title made me curious as I know the hymn "Jerusalem" and I had one of the best theatre evenings in years! As English is not my mother tongue I decided to read the play as well, because I really would not want to miss any of the jokes and satire in it. It's fresh, it's witty, it's entertaining as well as bitter to swallow.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jerusalem is about many things, from the hard partying gang that hangs about Rooster's rickety Airstream trailer, to the sadness of the discrimination against Romanys - Gitanes - Gypsies - of which he turns out to be one. Condemned to making money as a daredevil in his youth and a blood donor in middle age, Rooster is determined to live large - while the local town does its utmost to boot him out. In between, we are treated to the magic of central England, the fairies and giants and mystical beings that inhabit the woods and glens that for centuries have provided our legends. From Robin Hood to hobbits to Shrek, this setting is as fertile as they come, and author Jez Butterworth milks it to its fullest.
The first two acts are riotously funny, setting us up for the dismal fall, which is obvious from the beginning - this can't last. And it doesn't. But along the way we are treated to Rooster's intelligence, his understanding of the way things work, and his role in them. It's a remarkable story of coping and survival in a hostile environment, buried in a haze of gin and marijuana, as anybody in his situation might descend to. To that point, Jerusalem is highly believable. This could (and of course has been) going on in real life. Only the wonderfully involved massive and mammoth lies that Rooster spins are obviously made up. He has made himself into one of the great legends of the woods, remaining Rooster while generation after generation of teenagers in search of something more hang out for a while and move on.
A delightfully complex story, though readers don't have to get all this from reading it. As a straight story it is highly entertaining. But make no mistake, there is a masterpiece lurking in these pages.
The first two acts are riotously funny, setting us up for the dismal fall, which is obvious from the beginning - this can't last. And it doesn't. But along the way we are treated to Rooster's intelligence, his understanding of the way things work, and his role in them. It's a remarkable story of coping and survival in a hostile environment, buried in a haze of gin and marijuana, as anybody in his situation might descend to. To that point, Jerusalem is highly believable. This could (and of course has been) going on in real life. Only the wonderfully involved massive and mammoth lies that Rooster spins are obviously made up. He has made himself into one of the great legends of the woods, remaining Rooster while generation after generation of teenagers in search of something more hang out for a while and move on.
A delightfully complex story, though readers don't have to get all this from reading it. As a straight story it is highly entertaining. But make no mistake, there is a masterpiece lurking in these pages.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this to read after reading about the play on a news website. It's a great play to read and I would love to see it performed one day. I'm not sure how anyone outside the UK would take it as the characters and setting feel very English, but I do think the main character is so idiosyncratic that he would be interesting for anyone to watch. A great tale of something very earthy mixed with something very romantic (about England and the English) and folkloric. I loved the ending. It was one of the best endings I've "seen" in a play for a while.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
England's Dreaming
Jerusalem is a play about England, and I cannot think of a playwright since Shakespeare who has tackled the subject with such upfront gutsiness as Jez Butterworth does here. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Oliver Twist
Brilliant
Bought to keep one of the finest performances I have ever witnessed fresh in my mind, I also found myself thinking harder about the themes of this amazing 'state of the nation'... Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by JH
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