Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre

By Jez Butterworth

Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre Top / Details / The Company
Thu 28 Jan - Sat 24 Apr 2010

On St George’s Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron 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, and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.

A comic, contemporary vision of rural life in our green and pleasant land, Jez Butterworth’s epic new play is wildly original. In part a lament about the erosion of country life, and in part a rebuff to the antiseptic modern world, it features a landmark central performance from Mark Rylance as hellraiser Johnny Byron, a performance so charismatic, so mercurial, so complete and compelling that it doesnt look like acting, and a superb ensemble cast including Mackenzie Crook who ‘excels as Johnny’s sidekick Ginger.

Produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Royal Court Theatre Productions and Old Vic Productions, in association with Lee Menzies.

"Jerusalem is not about the green and pleasant land of lazyminded, armchair nationalists. It is flavoured instead by West Country madness and has, at its very core, a performance of rare virtuosity by Mark Rylance."

Daily Mail

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"Rylance’s performance struck me as perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most thrilling I had seen in more than 30 years of professional theatre-going."

Telegraph Read full review

"Jez Butterworth's gorgeous, expansive new play keeps coming at its audience in unpredictable gusts, rolling from comic to furious, from winsome to bawdy. It's a lament for England."

Guardian

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