New Theatre presents the Australian premiere of Jez Butterworth’s award-winning London and Broadway hit, Jerusalem.
On the morning of St George’s Day in a remote corner of rural Wiltshire, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron (a drug-dealing, trance music-loving ‘gyppo’ who has vodka and cocaine for breakfast) is a wanted man.
The council wants to evict him from his caravan in the woods, his kid wants to be taken to the county fair, his arch-enemy wants to give him a serious beating, and an assortment of hangers-on and no-hopers wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.
Jez Butterworth’s bold and exuberant play is a comic and anarchic vision of contemporary England’s green and pleasant land: a lament on the disintegration of rural communities, the sterility of modern life and the pervasive excesses of the ‘nanny state’.
Fast and furious, hysterically funny, more than a touch disturbing and ultimately heartbreaking, Jerusalem has been praised as one of the great plays to come out of the UK in the past decade and ‘Rooster’ regarded as one of the most startlingly original characters to hit the stage.
Jez Butterworth is an English playwright and film-maker. His plays include Mojo (which won the 1995 Evening Standard, Olivier and George Devine awards for ‘Best Play’), The Night Heron, Parlour Song and The River.
He co-wrote and directed the film Birthday Girl and as co-writer with his brother John-Henry, won a Writers Guild of America award in 2012 for the screenplay of Fair Game.
Jerusalem was nominated for Tony and Olivier awards, and won the 2009 Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards for ‘Best Play’.
Director: Helen Tonkin Featuring: Todd Backhouse, Luke Carson, Anna Chase, Tara Clark, Nicholas Eadie, Brynn Loosemore, Emma Louise, Peter McAllum, Lucy McNabb, Pete Nettell, Alex Norton, Claire Wall, Simon Ward, Jeremy Waters, Jacob Bradley, Roman Mellis, Oliver Shaw
Assistant Director / Dialect Coach: Emma Louise Set Design: Tom Bannerman Costume Design: Jennifer Ham Lighting Design: Blake Garner Sound Design: Alistair Wallace Production Manager: Martin Kelly Stage Manager: Ruth Horsfall
Jerusalem
New Theatre – 542 King Street, Newtown
Season: 15 August – 14 September 2013
Bookings: 1300 347 205 or online at: www.newtheatre.org.au
For more information, visit: www.newtheatre.org.au for details.
Image: Photo by Bob Seary
