Jez Butterworth's JERUSALEM returns to the West End for a strictly limited 16 weeks season
by Best of Theatre Staff on Thursday 29 July 2021, 5:58 pm in Upcoming and New Shows
Sonia Friedman Productions and the Royal Court Theatre today confirm the return of Ian Rickson’s production of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem to London’s West End for a strictly limited 16-week engagement. Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook will reprise their celebrated roles as Johnny “Rooster” Byron and Ginger respectively, with further casting to be announced at a later date.
Previewing at the Apollo Theatre from 16 April 2022 with the opening night on 28 April 2022, Jerusalem will run until 6 August 2022.
The original creative team will return for this 2022 production - designer Ultz, lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin, composer Stephen Warbeck,sound designer Ian Dickinson for Autograph and castingdirector Amy Ball CDG.
Jez Butterworth’s award-winning play, which premiered at the Royal Court in 2009, returns to the West End following record-breaking sold-out runs at the Royal Court and the Apollo Theatres in 2009, 2010 and 2011 as well as the Music Box Theater on Broadway in 2011.
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, Troy Whitworth wants to wreak his revenge and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.
Mark Rylance’s career has so far earned him an Academy Award®, three Tony Awards®, two Olivier Awards, three BAFTAs and one SAG Award. Rylance was the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London for 10 years (1996-2006). In 2018, he returned to The Globe to play Iago in Othello, directed by Claire van Kampen and previously in 2015, to play King Philippe V in Farinelli and the King, written by van Kampen, which then moved to the West End, garnering six Olivier Award nominations, before the play moved to Broadway. Recently announced was the debut run of a radical new play, Dr Semmelweis co-written by Rylance and Stephen Brown, with Rylance playing the lead role at the Bristol Old Vic in January 2022. Additional theatre roles include Ron in Nice Fish, which he also co-wrote with Louis Jenkins; Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night; Richard III; Valere in La Bête and Robert in Boeing-Boeing. He won Best Actor Tony Awards® for Twelfth Night, Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing; Best Actor Olivier Awards for Jerusalem and Much Ado About Nothing. Throughout his career, he has acted in more than 50 productions by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Rylance shot to worldwide fame with his foray into major films and TV, most notably his Oscar® and BAFTA-winning performance as Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies and the critically acclaimed Wolf Hall, directed by Peter Kosminsky. His portrayal of Thomas Cromwell garnered a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, Limited Series or Movie and an Emmy® nomination. Other film credits include Dunkirk, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The BFG, and Ready Player One. His latest roles in Terrence Malick’s The Last Planet, Craig Roberts’ The Phantom of The Open and Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up!, are to be released later in the year or 2022. He recently finished filming in Graham Moore’s The Outfit, and Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All.
Mackenzie Crook is a multi-award-winning actor, writer and director. His awards include two BAFTAs, a Writers Guild Award and a Rose D’Or Award. He was nominated for a Tony Award and an Olivier Award when he first co-starred in Jerusalem in 2011. Crook received huge critical acclaim as a writer, director and actor for his BBC shows Detectorists and Worzel Gummidge. His other theatre credits include Ian Rickson’s Royal Court production of The Seagull in the West End and on Broadway, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Garrick Theatre and The Exonerated at Riverside Studios. His film credits include three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Brothers Grimm, Finding Neverland, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, City of Ember, Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll and The Adventures of Tin Tin to name but a few. His other television credits include The Office, Merlin, Skins, Little Dorritt, Demons and Britanina (as actor, writer and director).
In 1995 Jez Butterworth’s first play Mojo won seven major awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. His other plays include The Night Heron (2002), The Winterling, (2006), Parlour Song (2008), Jerusalem (2009), The River (2012) and The Ferryman (2017). Jerusalem won Best Play at the Evening Standard Awards, before travelling to Broadway where it received six Tony nominations, winning two, including Best Actor for Mark Rylance. The Ferryman won Best Play and Best Director at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and three Olivier Awards for Best Director, Best Play and Best Actress. It transferred to Broadway and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning four including the award for Best Play. For film Butterworth has written dozens of screenplays for stars such as Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, Dakota Johnson, Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris, Matt Damon and Christian Bale. For television he has created and written the comedy series Mammals for Amazon Studios starring James Corden, Sally Hawkins, Melia Kreiling and Colin Morgan. The six-part series will be released in 2022. Butterworth also created the historical fantasy drama Britannia for Sky, starring David Morrissey, Zoe Wanamaker and Mackenzie Crook, now in its third season.