Jerusalem

Jez Butterworth's critically acclaimed play Jerusalem in London at the Apollo Theatre following a sell-out run at the Royal Court Theatre.

"The Must-See Event" The Daily Telegraph

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 son wants his dad to take him 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.

The cast for Jerusalem in London features Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook along with Alan David, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Gerard Horan, Danny Kirrane, Charlotte Mills, Sarah Moyle, Harvey Robinson and Barry Sloane. The production is directed by Ian Rickson with designs by Ultz, lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin, sound by Ian Dickinson and music by Stephen Warbeck.

"Jez Butterworth's new play is a wonderful, rollicking, dark comedy about contemporary life in rural England" he Financial Times

"For the past 50 years, London's Royal Court Theatre has been at the cutting edge of theatrical culture, dragging theatre out of the drawing room and into the kitchen, promoting a thrilling array of contemporary voices. This week, in what will surely be seen as yet another landmark production, Jez Butterworth's boisterous, unruly and exceptionally funny new play, Jerusalem, goes beyond the kitchen sink and into the woods of Wiltshire... Ian Rickson's compelling production initially beguiles with the sweet smell of wood smoke and then alarms us with the stink of petrol. Mark Rylance gives the performance of the year so far as the irresistibly comic, charismatic shaman; Mackenzie Crook, in the same unmistakable Wiltshire accent he gave Gareth in The Office, plays his droopily worshipful hanger-on. A must-see." The Mail on Sunday

"An invigorating, yelping, defiant portrait of 21st century shires England" The Daily Mail

"At the heart of Jez Butterworth's new play, Jerusalem, stands a character and a performance by Mark Rylance, which should deeply divide audience opinion... Johnny 'Rooster' Byron is the stuff of parents' nightmares. A washed-up, alcoholic drug-dealer, living in a fetid caravan on the edge of a wood in a West Country village, Byron is a modern-day Pied Piper, with the impressionable teenagers of the district dancing to his anti-establishment tune... Without an actor blessed with Rylance's timing and physical skills, the play could fall flat on its face... The supporting cast has no weak link... Some may see Jerusalem as a patronising take on rural life; some will enjoy its vinegary truth; some may seek deeper symbolic resonances. But that's more than a starting point for argument." The Sunday Telegraph

"A play blessed with what I suspect will prove an award-winning performance by the great Mark Rylance" The Daily Telegraph

"Jez Butterworth writes the funniest, most original 'condition of England' plays going, and Jerusalem is a brilliant addition to his work; an outrageously funny portrait of a wild, old, wicked gyppo called Johnny Byron... Mark Rylance is faultless as Johnny, with his lopsided stance, crinkly eyes and soaring flights of fancy... Think Shameless translated to the Forest of Arden. Yet Johnny is the last of a dying species. Will the ancient powers of England rescue him from the whey-faced, lily-livered forces of conformity? Will the pandemoniac spirit of the wildwood yet prevail?" The Sunday Times

"In Johnny Byron, Butterworth has created a thrilling role. Mark Rylance's is an astonishing performance, which confirms that he is one of our finest stage actors" The London Evening Standard

Jerusalem in London at the Royal Court Theatre from 10 July 2009 to 22 August 2009, transfers to Apollo Theatre with previews from 28 January 2010, opens on 10 February 2010 and closes on 24 April 2010.