Jerusalem

Jez Butterworth’s hugely acclaimed, prize-winning play – a comic, contemporary vision of life in England’s green and pleasant land.

On St George’s Day, the morning of the local country fair, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, local waster and Lord of Misrule, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants to be taken to the fair, a vengeful father wants to give him a serious kicking, and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.

Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in July 2009 in a production directed by Ian Rickson and starring Mark Rylance. It transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in January 2010, and played on Broadway in 2011.

Jez Butterworth’s play won the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Critics Circle and Whatsonstage.com awards for Best New Play.

‘Unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century’
— Guardian

‘Tender, touching, and blessed with both a ribald humour and a haunting sense of the mystery of things… one of the must-see events of the summer’
— Telegraph

‘Jez Butterworth’s gorgeous, expansive new play keeps coming at its audience in unpredictable gusts, rolling from comic to furious, from winsome to bawdy’
— Observer

‘Storming… restores one’s faith in the power of theatre’
— Independent

‘Show of the year’
— Time Out

‘Arguably the best play of the 21st century so far, a work whose importance and resonance has only increased since its premiere in 2009’
— Whatsonstage (in January 2022)

Best New Play, Critics’ Circle Awards

Best New Play, WhatsOnStage Awards

Best Play, Evening Standard Awards

Additional information