Plays: One

by Jez Butterworth

Four full-length plays and two previously unpublished shorts from the multi-award-winning author of Jerusalem . Jez Butterworth burst onto the theatre scene aged twenty-five with Mojo , 'one of the most dazzling Royal Court main stage debuts in years' ( Time Out ). This first volume of his Collected Plays contains that play plus the three that followed, as well as two short one-person pieces published here for the first time - everything in fact that precedes Jerusalem , 'unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century' ( Guardian ). Plays One Mojo , The Night Heron , The Winterling , Leavings (previously unpublished), Parlour Song and The Naked Eye (previously unpublished). Introducing the plays is an interview with Jez Butterworth specially conducted for this volume. 'The verbal menace of Harold Pinter [combined with] the physical violence of Quentin Tarantino' The Times on Mojo 'It's funny, it's sad, it's haunting and it is also strangely beautiful. Best of all, it is quite unlike anything you have seen before' Telegraph on The Night Heron 'Dazzling' Guardian on The Winterling 'Wickedly funny' Financial Times on Parlour Song

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Canon

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first decade-and-a-half of Butterworth's writing life is generally considered to start with a banger - Mojo - and then he sets about working through and towards something that defines his plays of 2009 and beyond. I pretty much feel the same - except to say The Winterling was an unexpected thrill.

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Mojo: 4/5 - A vicious, funny play that's more about the 90s than the 50s in which its set. It's so of its time it's caught in aspic.

The Night Heron: 3.5/5 - You really do feel with these plays that Butterworth is working his way towards something, and with the benefit of hindsight we know that's his plays of 2009 and beyond. This is a curious stop on the journey, mostly notable for Bolla Fogg - the verse-loving ex-con, a character I now totally love.

The Winterling: 5/5 - I loved this one. Stranger and more dangerous than his more violent work that precedes it. The Pinter is worn consciously but carefully. The rhythms hit in the guts. And also, to be really clear, Butterworth is fucking funny.

Parlour Song: 4/5 - This feels in many ways like the smallest of Butterworth's plays, even including The River, the landscape of which gives it a sense of the mythical. This is all the claustrophobia of suburbia, and doesn't it send everyone a little crazy. It's also, possibly, the most consciously theatrical.

There are two shorts in this collection but Butterworth is almost too defined by scale and the full-length-ness of his work for these to really register.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

OVERALL 3.5 stars

**Mojo - 3 stars - crime play -

**The Night Heron - 4 stars - odd ending but very good to that point.

**The Winterling - 4 stars - originally with Sally Hawkins - would have been great to see - very mysterious, keeps you on edge.

**Leavings - 2 stars - short monologue.

**Parlour Song - 4 stars

**The Naked Eye - very short