England’s green and pleasant land.
St George’s Day. It’s the day of the Flintock Fair and the day Kennet and Avon Council want to see the back of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron for good. The new estate want the maverick local boy evicted, but Johnny has other plans.
At his ramshackle caravan kingdom, the charismatic hellraiser entertains his band of ‘undesirable’ scallywags with outlandish tales, unbelievable antics and an ample supply of booze and drugs. Infamous for holding the most riotous parties this side of the Wiltshire border, Johnny is a hero to many but a villain to others. Pursued by the authorities, threatened by the local thug and reprimanded by his ex, Johnny is not a man to be beaten down.
Inciting his own special brew of anarchy, Johnny fights against the hypocrisy of modern suburban life and embodies the spirit of England’s legendary giants of myth. A raucous, earthy contemporary classic, Jerusalem paints a rebellious alternative vision of the idyllic English countryside.
Following enormous success in the West End and Broadway, Jez Butterworth’s startling, multi award-winning play is brought to life at The Watermill.
This production contains especially strong language throughout. Age guidance 16 and upwards. Parental discretion advised. There will be strobe lighting and smoking on stage.
The running time is approximately 3 hours including two twelve minute intervals.
‘A wonderful, rollicking, dark comedy about contemporary life in rural England’ Financial Times
‘Fantastic, shocking and fresh’ Daily Mail
Jerusalem in the West End, 2011.
Directed by Lisa Blair
Designed by Frankie Bradshaw
Lighting designed by Christopher Nairne
Sound designer and Musical Director Tom Attwood
Jasper Britton
Johnny 'Rooster' Byron
Jasper has most recently appeared in Scrooge (Leicester Curve); What the Butler Saw (Leicester Curve); The Libertine (Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Royal Haymarket). Prior to that Richard II, The Jew of Malta and Henry IV Part 1 and II for The RSC at Stratford, The Barbican and New York. His many other credits include Race at (Hampstead); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Abbey Theatre); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Sheffield Crucible), Fabrication (The Print Room); The Last Cigarette (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End); Fram (National Theatre); Oedipus (National Theatre), Rhinoceros (Royal Court); The Taming Of The Shrew (RSC, Washington D.C. and West End); Japes (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Tempest (Globe Theatre) and The Visit (Theatre de Complicite). Film Credits include Rise of the Footsoldier 2, Blood, Anonymous, Morris: A Life With Bells On and The New World.
Adam Burton
Luke Parsons/ Troy Whitworth
Adam trained at LIPA. His theatre credits include: My Brilliant Friend (Rose Theatre); The Tempest (Norwich & Norfolk Festival); Calculating Kindness (Undercurrent Theatre); The Hairy Ape (Old Vic); Everyman (Royal National Theatre); Titus (The Theory of Everything); The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk); All My Sons (Watermill); The Orphan Of Zhao, Boris Godunov, A Life Of Galileo (all RSC); The Tempest (RSC in a Suitcase); American Trade, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, The Drunks and Julius Caesar (RSC); Timon Of Athens and A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Globe); Masque Of The Red Death and Faust (Punchdrunk); As You Like It (Derby Playhouse); Baggage (Edinburgh Pleasance Theatre); The Adding Machine (Rogue State/ Courtyard Theatre); The Waiting Game (Courtyard and King’s Head); Heart of a Dog (Rogue State/Assembly Rooms).
Peter Caulfield
Ginger
Theatre includes: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Tumnus, (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Enron, Lehman Brothers (West End); Obama-ology (Finborough Theatre); One Man, Two Guvnors, Alfie (West End); Man of Mode (National Theatre); The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse); The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse); Lark Rise to Candleford - Parts 1 & 2 (Finborough Theatre); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Eric’s (Liverpool Everyman); The Merchant of Venice (Derby Playhouse); White Liars (Etcetera Theatre); King Herod in the Olivier award-winning production of Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Into The Woods (Royal Opera House); A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To the Forum (National Theatre); Follies (National Theatre); member of original Olivier award-winning cast Our House. TV includes: Cucumber, Francesco (Channel 4); Banana (E4); Doctor Who Season 10 (BBC TV); Modus (BBC). Film includes: Strange Ways Here We Come - released late 2018. Other credits include: Edgar Allan Poe’s Haunted Palace - performing with The Tiger Lillie’s in the title role (Royal Festival Hall).
Richard Evans
The Professor
Recent theatre; The Cacophony of Change, Wordsworth (Theatre by the Lake), The Prince and The Pauper (The Unicorn Theatre), Hope Light & Nowhere (Edinburgh), Dear Father Christmas (Oxford), Hamlet (Northern Broadsides) and Saturn Returns (Finborough). Other theatre; The Crucible (Bolton), Burial at Thebes (Nottingham), As You Like It (Derby), Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Beowulf (English Shakespeare Company), As You Like It (Greenwich Playhouse), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Bury St Edmonds), two seasons at the Chichester, Pickwick Papers and Unlawful Killing (Wolsey, Ipswich), Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford), Julius Caesar (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Secret Garden (Manchester), Moll Flanders (Bristol), The Weavers (Gate Theatre), Richard IV (Northcott Theatre), Under the Greenwood Tree (Vaudeville). Television / Film: Woman in Gold, Being Human, The Trip, The Conspiracy Theories, Pinocchio Effect, The Brief, North and South, Fight To The Death, The Gathering, Inspector Linley Mysteries, One Foot In The Grave, Peak Practice, Between the Lines, Mitch, Rumpole, Dempsey and Makepeace and Auf Wiedersehn Pet.
Robert Fitch
Wesley
Theatre includes: Much Ado About Nothing (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Journey’s End (The Watermill Theatre); Oberon/Theseus (Stafford Festival Shakespeare); Anne Boleyn (The Globe and ETT); Edward II (The Rose); Terms of Endearment (York Theatre Royal and tour); The Wings of the Dove (tour); Dangerous Corner and Ten Times Table (Theatre Royal Windsor); Marrying the Mistress (tour): Intimate Exchanges, Stage Struck, Absurd Person Singular, Deadly Nightcap, One For The Pot (Theatre Royal Windsor); Over The Moon (The Old Vic) Wait Until Dark (The Garrick). Film includes:Day of the Flowers, Shaun of the Dead, There’s no ‘I’ in Team, The Virus, Citizen vs Kane (winner Prix Canal Plus at Clermont Ferrand short film festival 2009). Television includes: Derek, Doctors, The Queen’s Sister, London’s Burning. Narrations for television include: Ask Lara (animation), Mummy Mysteries, Secrets of Stalingrad, The Last Voyage of the Empress, Animal Armageddon, Ultimate Battles, Quest for Sunken Warships (Discovery channel); Zumbo (Sky TV). Radio includes:Time to Move, Telling It The Way It Is and Together (BBC).
Rebecca Lee
Tanya
Rebecca trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has been nominated for the Ian Charleson Award 2017.
Theatre includes:The First Man (Jermyn Street Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Nominated for an Ian Charleson Award), Twelfth Night (Watermill Theatre). Theatre while training includeHer Naked Skin, Guys and Dolls, Machinal. Television includes: Babs (BBC). Film includes:The First Man (Soff Productions)
Nenda Neurer
Pea/ Phaedra
Nenda graduated from Rose Bruford College in 2017. She represented Rose Bruford at the 2017 Sam Wanamaker Festival, playing Vittoria in The White Devil.
Theatre includes: The Borrowers (Watermill Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre).
Santino Smith
Davey
Theatre includes The Unemployed Actors Union (Dax), written by Santino Smith and Scott Mackie (The White Bear Theatre); The Real Thing (Brodie) (Theatre Royal Bath/Cambridge Arts/Rose Theatre Kingston); All That I Am (Tugs), The Narrative (Brian), The Rover (Blunt), In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Lenny), The Taming of the Shrew (Baptista) (all Richard Burton Theatre Company).
Sam Swann
Lee
Theatre includes: Oil (Almedia Theatre); Pomona (National Theatre/The Orange Tree Theatre); Greenland; The Kitchen (National Theatre); Wendy & Peter Pan (RSC); Dunsinane (Hampstead Theatre/RSC) Primetime (Royal Court); Prom Kween (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Dr Korczak’s Example; A Winter’s Tale (Unicorn Theatre); Mercury Fur (Trafalgar Studios); Anne & Zef (Salisbury Playhouse); The Butcher Of Distinction (Cock Tavern/King’s Head); Powder Monkey (Royal Exchange, Manchester).
Television includes: Jekyll & Hyde (ITV); Mr Selfridge (ITV/PBS); The Five (Sky One); Vicious (ITV); Gothic (BBC2); B*tchcraft (ChannelFlip); Atlantis (BBC 1); Privates (BBC); Doctors (BBC1) Navid and Johnny (BBC1). Film includes: Been So Long (BFI/Film4); The Current War (The Weinstein Company). Radio includes: Home Front; The Interrogation; Obey The Wave; The Second Mr Bailey (BBC R4), The Trenches Trip (BBC Radio Scotland).
Natalie Walter
Linda Fawcett/ Dawn
Television credits include: Horrible Histories (series regular/CBBC); Family Tree (HBO/BBC 2); Jonathan Creek (ITV); Doctor Who (BBC1). Film credits include: The Wedding Video; You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Stage credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC); Loves Labours Lost (RSC); Noises Off (National Theatre); Piano Forte (The Royal Court); Habeus Corpus (Donmar) and 39 Steps (West End). Radio includes: Kind Hearts And Coronets; Seekers (Radio 4).