One of the most beautiful things about theatre, and perhaps the most poignant, is the way it disappears. There’s an air of mourning about the best work as a result of this: almost as soon as you’ve seen it, it will go. Great performances seem to be imbued by the knowledge of this fleeting quality, made to burn brighter by their mayfly nature.
Within a few years of even the most successful show in the world opening, only traces of that show will be left behind, and the best record of what made it extraordinary will only exist in people’s memories. A playtext might be published, leaving a record of what was said, and the production might transfer and run in the West End for a while, but it will always close eventually. Revivals will happen, new versions for new times, and the creatives who were part of the first productions will go on and do other things, but they’re rarely, if ever, seen together again.
Imagine a world where bands only ever played their latest albums, and all previous albums could only be heard on bootleg live recordings, no one could ever hear the real thing again. That’s the theatre.
Bearing this in mind, you can understand the elation of many when it was announced on St George’s Day that Ian Rickson was going to direct Mark Rylance in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem again next year, over a decade after they first told that story together. For a great number of theatregoers, Jerusalem ranks as the most extraordinary night they’ve spent in a theatre, Rylance’s towering, Eric Cantona-like portrayal of the lead character, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, the most compelling thing they’ve witnessed.
These kinds of shows rarely come round again. The key creatives are too busy, with too many projects and calls on their time, and they’ve done the thing, anyway — they’re happy to move on. But Rylance and Rickson are going to revisit their greatest work, while still at the peak of their powers, after a decade when everything and nothing seems to have changed in England. It’s a truly amazing opportunity for audiences to experience something many of us thought was gone.
Jerusalem tells the story of a man about to be evicted from his caravan in a Wiltshire wood by the Kennet and Avon council. It’s about people living on the wild edges of society, and people who’ve fallen into the meat grinder of precarious rural life. It’s about the lure of the lawless, the country’s rebel spirit. It’s about England, in an ambitious way that few writers attempt and even fewer avoid embarrassing themselves in the course of attempting. But Butterworth did it triumphantly. Very few theatremakers living now will ever produce anything as good as this show was in its first production.
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Without doubt the best play I have ever seen. I went on the off-chance to the Royal Court to a £5 “restricted view” seat and still smile when I think about it over 10 years later
Interesting article, and thoughtful especially as regards what the play was getting at back then and how it might be experienced whenever its revival manages to get staged in what could still be some way off for much theatre-going.
I saw the play at the Royal Court when it opened in 2009; how time flies. Lovely set, with what looked like a real tree growing out from the stage and the involvement of an odd mix of characters. I was taken by the power of ‘Rooster’ Byron’s presence Mark Rylance-style and his riveting closing speech. Several very different friends who saw also saw the play during that short opening run were just as impressed by it, although I suspected I hadn’t understood something about it insofar as I didn’t think it was the best thing I’d seen. From that list of outstanding plays discussed by Michael Billington in the article linked-to, I consider several others of them to have been just as memorable. All the same, when ‘Jerusalem’ returns it will be worth others’ time trying to see it.
Oh what’s the point
Middle class man waxes lyrically about a middle class art form
So what? There’s nothing wrong with being middle class, and Jerusalem is a brilliant play! I agree that this review is a bit naff, but the gist is a good point and you don’t have to read the review if you don’t like it.- Don’t miss the play, though, if it’s ever on again in the end.