What do you think?
Rate this book
Jerusalem
"[A] startlingly brilliant new play. . . . A tragic and hilarious vision of life in an English country community. Butterworth’s new work was the most talked about new work of the season."— The London Paper
109 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
82 people are currently reading
2249 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
December 14, 2011
Notgettingenough and I went to this critically acclaimed play a couple of nights ago at the West End. I watched the whole thing with rapt attention; Not, as she sometimes does, took a short nap halfway through. I imagined this would give me an advantage during the post-mortem, but I should have known better.
"So what did you think it was about?" she asked as we left the theatre.
"Um, dunno," I said. "Maybe a metaphor for the current state of England? I mean, here we are, rotten to the core, served with an eviction notice and a few hours to vacate the property, but we think our charm and verbal brilliance will somehow let us sneak out of it..."
"Was he supposed to be a Christ-figure?" interrupted Not, impatient with my slow mental processes.
I hadn't been alert, and as usual I'd failed even to consider the possibility. Just because Rooster Byron is a drunk who's banned from every pub in town and supplies the local kids with illegal substances while telling them preposterous lies and getting a few of the prettier girls pregnant, it hadn't crossed my mind that he might also be Jesus. Verily, the Day of the Lord cometh as the thief in the night: maybe we wouldn't recognise Him this time either, a theme James Blish also took pleasure in exploring. So how strong is the case here?
There was certainly a lot of camouflage. You wouldn't necessarily expect Christ to put a glass of tea-and-vodka down the front of his stained pants, cheat at Trivial Pursuits or recount off-colour jokes about having sex with the whole of Girls Aloud. But, just as with Lisbeth Salander, there were surprisingly many hints once you started looking for them. Why does everyone love the old reprobate so much, even the woman from the council who pins the eviction paperwork to the door of his grubby trailer? Why is he able to spread a mysterious joy and peace to so many people? (He drives a good many more mad with rage, but Jesus did that too). He claims to be a virgin birth, after an incident where a local philander is caught in flagrante and shot through the scrotum and the bullet, after multiple ricochets, ends up in his mother's panties. He's tortured and branded with a cross-shaped branding iron. But he rises again, and, at the end, he - maybe - summons heavenly assistance. And then of course there's the title.
It's a daring hypothesis, and Google turns up few other people who've had the same thought. Even though I still can't quite believe it, kudos to Not for lack of conventional religious prejudices. And whatever the message, it's definitely worth seeing.
"So what did you think it was about?" she asked as we left the theatre.
"Um, dunno," I said. "Maybe a metaphor for the current state of England? I mean, here we are, rotten to the core, served with an eviction notice and a few hours to vacate the property, but we think our charm and verbal brilliance will somehow let us sneak out of it..."
"Was he supposed to be a Christ-figure?" interrupted Not, impatient with my slow mental processes.
I hadn't been alert, and as usual I'd failed even to consider the possibility. Just because Rooster Byron is a drunk who's banned from every pub in town and supplies the local kids with illegal substances while telling them preposterous lies and getting a few of the prettier girls pregnant, it hadn't crossed my mind that he might also be Jesus. Verily, the Day of the Lord cometh as the thief in the night: maybe we wouldn't recognise Him this time either, a theme James Blish also took pleasure in exploring. So how strong is the case here?
There was certainly a lot of camouflage. You wouldn't necessarily expect Christ to put a glass of tea-and-vodka down the front of his stained pants, cheat at Trivial Pursuits or recount off-colour jokes about having sex with the whole of Girls Aloud. But, just as with Lisbeth Salander, there were surprisingly many hints once you started looking for them. Why does everyone love the old reprobate so much, even the woman from the council who pins the eviction paperwork to the door of his grubby trailer? Why is he able to spread a mysterious joy and peace to so many people? (He drives a good many more mad with rage, but Jesus did that too). He claims to be a virgin birth, after an incident where a local philander is caught in flagrante and shot through the scrotum and the bullet, after multiple ricochets, ends up in his mother's panties. He's tortured and branded with a cross-shaped branding iron. But he rises again, and, at the end, he - maybe - summons heavenly assistance. And then of course there's the title.
It's a daring hypothesis, and Google turns up few other people who've had the same thought. Even though I still can't quite believe it, kudos to Not for lack of conventional religious prejudices. And whatever the message, it's definitely worth seeing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2014
Absolutely loved it, I guarantee it'll be considered a masterpiece in years to come. It certainly deserves to be. Oh how I wish I could have seen the play performed when it was in London (it's currently on Broadway with Mark freaking Rylance) just to get the full impact of the story. Jez Butterworth's crafted a completely bonkers but highly enjoyable tale, equal parts hilarious and tragic and always very powerful. It's a vision of the real England of the 21st century in a small town that hangs onto tradition for the sake of tradition while everyone tries to cope with the changes. Rooster may not be a nice man, and sometimes he's very unlikeable, but he's a fascinating man, a complete powerhouse of tales, delusions and a fool-like clarity that reminded me of Shakespeare's most famous fool, Falstaff. A man viewed in equal parts with admiration and mockery by everyone around him, he has a view of the world nobody else has and he'll fight to the end to keep it that way. People lament the loss of the England of old but Butterworth questions whether that national identity ever existed. The teenagers that hang around his trailer hoping to score some drugs or alcohol enjoy his company and laugh at his increasingly ridiculous tales (the telling of stories is a key element of the play) but Rooster is also a cautionary tale, one that none of them want to end up like. He's the twisted daredevil Pied Piper, one they want to follow despite their common sense.
The first two parts of the play are hilarious, packed full of creatively profane language and pop culture references, painting a picture of an England more concerned with parties and drinking than any sense of patriotism. It's setting the story up for the inevitable fall, one that must and will happen. It's a strange play, often surreal and ridiculous and definitely not for everyone, but there's something undeniably fascinating about Jerusalem. Part parable, part social commentary, part updated Shakespearean tragi-comedy, it's a mish-mash of perfectly organised chaos. There's a cutting intelligence behind the Cheryl Cole jokes and frequent use of the 'c' word, one that exposes the hypocrisy of hanging onto old traditions whilst exposing the real England. Packed full of iconic English imagery and metaphors, it's one that definitely requires a reread (and a national tour please!)
Here's a trailer for the Broadway production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcp4mw...
The first two parts of the play are hilarious, packed full of creatively profane language and pop culture references, painting a picture of an England more concerned with parties and drinking than any sense of patriotism. It's setting the story up for the inevitable fall, one that must and will happen. It's a strange play, often surreal and ridiculous and definitely not for everyone, but there's something undeniably fascinating about Jerusalem. Part parable, part social commentary, part updated Shakespearean tragi-comedy, it's a mish-mash of perfectly organised chaos. There's a cutting intelligence behind the Cheryl Cole jokes and frequent use of the 'c' word, one that exposes the hypocrisy of hanging onto old traditions whilst exposing the real England. Packed full of iconic English imagery and metaphors, it's one that definitely requires a reread (and a national tour please!)
Here's a trailer for the Broadway production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcp4mw...
April 19, 2026
inflating my Goodreads stats with plays
December 3, 2020
I go through phases of reading film or stage scripts from time to time as you get to see your own version of the performance in your mind’s eye. Besides, it’s the only way to read the works of, say, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter or Tennessee Williams who did not write novels.
And so it is with Jez Butterworth, whose comedy, Jerusalem, was first performed to high acclaim in 2009 at the Royal Court Theatre in London with Mark Rylance in the lead role of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron – a former fairground motorcycle ‘jumper’ fallen on hard times, living in a derelict caravan in a Somerset forest and making ends meet with drug dealing whilst surrounded by local stragglers and teenage girls. Unsavoury to say the least. The story circles round his last-stance attempts to defend his sacred little piece of England against imminent Council eviction.
This is a clever, witty and learned script full of nuances that I think might be missed in live performance due to the speed of the dialogue. I cannot quite imagine Mark Rylance playing this rough character – for which he won a Tony Award – as I will forever see him as the charismatic Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. He is, apparently, due to reprise the role in a revival of the play this summer in London’s West End (restrictions allowing) which will be worth looking out for.
And so it is with Jez Butterworth, whose comedy, Jerusalem, was first performed to high acclaim in 2009 at the Royal Court Theatre in London with Mark Rylance in the lead role of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron – a former fairground motorcycle ‘jumper’ fallen on hard times, living in a derelict caravan in a Somerset forest and making ends meet with drug dealing whilst surrounded by local stragglers and teenage girls. Unsavoury to say the least. The story circles round his last-stance attempts to defend his sacred little piece of England against imminent Council eviction.
This is a clever, witty and learned script full of nuances that I think might be missed in live performance due to the speed of the dialogue. I cannot quite imagine Mark Rylance playing this rough character – for which he won a Tony Award – as I will forever see him as the charismatic Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. He is, apparently, due to reprise the role in a revival of the play this summer in London’s West End (restrictions allowing) which will be worth looking out for.
August 16, 2019
I did enjoy this, but I think I would have got much more out of it if I'd seen the play.
March 31, 2022
Unfortunately I didn't like this play as much as The Ferryman. Hard to symphatise with any character. Read on goodreads about the theory of Rooster as a parabel for Christ and it very well could be the case. Nonetheless not really my cup of tea.
June 3, 2018
After seeing Jez Butterworth's magnificent play, The Ferryman, in London recently, I asked the friend who had urged me to go to recommend another of his plays. Hence, I ordered Jerusalem, read it, read it again, and then forced myself to wait two long days to read it once more. It is quite simply stunning—achingly sad in places, and outrageously funny in others. Gorgeous writing.
May 3, 2022
what the fuck Julia
April 23, 2026
Meet Johnny Byron: loud, rambunctious, opinionated, has lived for decades in a trailer in a council estate , lover, drug dealer and philosopher.
Johnny lives in this untethered existence until it’s the day of the St. George’s fair where he finds out that the local council wants to evict him, he promised his son that, against his wishes, he’d take him to the fair. Plus his past actions are coming back to him.
A rich and rousing commentary about politics and personal freedom, Jerusalem is an excellent piece of work - I don’t usually read scripts but I highly recommend this one.
Johnny lives in this untethered existence until it’s the day of the St. George’s fair where he finds out that the local council wants to evict him, he promised his son that, against his wishes, he’d take him to the fair. Plus his past actions are coming back to him.
A rich and rousing commentary about politics and personal freedom, Jerusalem is an excellent piece of work - I don’t usually read scripts but I highly recommend this one.
June 9, 2024
this book honestly hit me hard. it was extremely funny and witty, yet also devastating and sad. the exploration of isolation and relationships honestly really hit and affected me, there was definite deeper layer to this play which really resonated with me.
4⭐️
“The world turns. And it turns. And it moves and you don't. You're still here.”
4⭐️
“The world turns. And it turns. And it moves and you don't. You're still here.”
April 21, 2026
I really like this play. It honestly was kinda crazy to read because so much it happening that’s so random but in the end it really make you think about life, privilege, how unfair the government is but also to look on and see how a person can also have contributed to put themselves in the place they are in. Feels very real and possible while also riding the line of imagination leaving the watcher of the play/reader wondering what’s waiting in the woods just off of the stage in the wings. Also forget to mention read for class but highly enjoyed.
March 20, 2012
Jerusalem strains very hard for an effect it never manages to achieve, leaving us with the occasional amusing story, but far, far too much time spent with the sort of tedious drugheads whose presence in a play is meant to give us the feeling that what we are watching is 'edgy' and 'daring', but which can't help but be as boring as someone telling us "how out of it I was last night". The attempt to link the main character to the myths of old England never convinces and the play - which also tries very hard to be relevant to the moment by including many references to recent pop culture - will quickly become outdated. " England's green & pleasant Land" may, in many ways be a desperate place today but Butterworth fails to find the cry of its despair.
May 5, 2022
all fucking day
April 23, 2026
3.75 ⭐️ — I think this is the second time ever i read a play and it also happens to be my fourth read for the service95 book club! This month’s selection definitely took me off guard because i didn’t expect any theatre. Something i found out that i liked about this and i guess about scripts in general it’s how it allows us, the reader, to have such a strong sense of what’s actually going on in the story. This one was so funny and the combination of mythology with modern day was something i’ve never seen before. I think it took me a while to climatize to it but it was good
February 20, 2022
afresh afresh afresh a molotov cocaine cocktail shotputted from Lands End to Devizes
February 2, 2023
Jez Butterworth, amen.
July 19, 2025
interesting but johnny is not a christ like or pied piper figure please that’s just a criminal bum living in the damm woods and no the blood donation does not redeem him
April 21, 2026
Jerusalem is the first play chosen by Dua Lipa for her Service95 bookclub and is the April 2026 choice. The play had its first run at the Royal Court in 2009 and was an instant hit, with lines around the block and down the street for tickets. I love that Dua interviews the authors of her book club picks and other relevant people on her podcast each month because we can tune in to get a more in-depth look at the intentions of plot and characterization. The discussion this month was superb and I highly recommend it.
Set on St George’s Day on a clearing in the woods of an English countryside. Johnny Rooster Byron lives on the fringe of society in a mobile home in that clearing and the establishment wants him out. The play begins as a community liaison official staples a notice of eviction to his front door stating he will be forcibly removed tomorrow and everything razed to the ground. There is a new neighborhood of middle class houses being built and sold nearby, and no one wants Johnny that close to them with his drug-fueled parties, loud music, and idle youth camping out there. Meanwhile, the 15 year old reigning May Queen named Phaedra is to pass on her crown today at the St. George’s Day festival but she has been missing for anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. She opens the play by singing Jerusalem while dressed as a fairy and is interrupted. She flees into the woods as Act 1 starts.
Culturally, Romani traveller camps were quite common at the time Jez Butterworth wrote the play. They faced constant discrimination and persecution by the local officials and were often forcibly relocated and displaced. Johnny and his band of followers were written as the “outside of society” characters he encountered growing up. Johnny as a character is a deluded, almost mythical, storytelling drug dealer with a posse of misfits who is also an anti-establishment hero with a heart of gold and always the smartest guy in the room. He can be compared to Robin Hood or even Christ but is also very very human.
Overall, staying vs leaving is the major theme and a point of discussion throughout the play in every act and every scene with every character. The final, climactic scene stays within that theme while being ambiguous but oh so epic and legendary. I loved reading this play and hearing the author’s breakdown on the podcast. I would love to see it in person one day, though it is a very English play with slang and references I needed to look up often. Short on pages but with a lot say if you look for the meaning behind every scene, every phrase, every word. 5 big big stars.
Set on St George’s Day on a clearing in the woods of an English countryside. Johnny Rooster Byron lives on the fringe of society in a mobile home in that clearing and the establishment wants him out. The play begins as a community liaison official staples a notice of eviction to his front door stating he will be forcibly removed tomorrow and everything razed to the ground. There is a new neighborhood of middle class houses being built and sold nearby, and no one wants Johnny that close to them with his drug-fueled parties, loud music, and idle youth camping out there. Meanwhile, the 15 year old reigning May Queen named Phaedra is to pass on her crown today at the St. George’s Day festival but she has been missing for anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. She opens the play by singing Jerusalem while dressed as a fairy and is interrupted. She flees into the woods as Act 1 starts.
Culturally, Romani traveller camps were quite common at the time Jez Butterworth wrote the play. They faced constant discrimination and persecution by the local officials and were often forcibly relocated and displaced. Johnny and his band of followers were written as the “outside of society” characters he encountered growing up. Johnny as a character is a deluded, almost mythical, storytelling drug dealer with a posse of misfits who is also an anti-establishment hero with a heart of gold and always the smartest guy in the room. He can be compared to Robin Hood or even Christ but is also very very human.
Overall, staying vs leaving is the major theme and a point of discussion throughout the play in every act and every scene with every character. The final, climactic scene stays within that theme while being ambiguous but oh so epic and legendary. I loved reading this play and hearing the author’s breakdown on the podcast. I would love to see it in person one day, though it is a very English play with slang and references I needed to look up often. Short on pages but with a lot say if you look for the meaning behind every scene, every phrase, every word. 5 big big stars.
May 29, 2025
Recommended to me by the screenwriter and actor Rob Heyland.
An interesting play! Cantankerous characters, outrageous scenes, speech seasoned with swearing but overall I thought it lacked some substance. There's definitely a great play in there and I love Butterworth's idea- the allusions to the Bible and to myth are extremely clever and I think the reasons I didn't enjoy the play enough to give it four or five stars are the same reasons someone would!
You cannot help but be drawn towards the mysterious character Rooster Byron is and the culture he represents. I grew attached to ginger and there are well written characters that act as allegory's in many ways. There are many interesting lenses to look at this play through and I enjoyed reading it but I was left wanting a bit more.
May potentially actually watch the play at the end of summer so that may change my perspective seeing it performed live.
An interesting play! Cantankerous characters, outrageous scenes, speech seasoned with swearing but overall I thought it lacked some substance. There's definitely a great play in there and I love Butterworth's idea- the allusions to the Bible and to myth are extremely clever and I think the reasons I didn't enjoy the play enough to give it four or five stars are the same reasons someone would!
You cannot help but be drawn towards the mysterious character Rooster Byron is and the culture he represents. I grew attached to ginger and there are well written characters that act as allegory's in many ways. There are many interesting lenses to look at this play through and I enjoyed reading it but I was left wanting a bit more.
May potentially actually watch the play at the end of summer so that may change my perspective seeing it performed live.
March 31, 2026
2,5 ⭐️
Read this for Dua Lipa’s bookclub and had never heard of it before + I’m not a theater person so take this review with a grain of salt.
I can see how this could be enjoyable or at least entertaining as a performance; reading it, however, is a different story. After reading some reviews of it, I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but I didn’t find it particularly well done nor interesting. There is some value in interrogating national identity, but the way it was approached felt a bit dated (as did the language, we could’ve done without the racial slurs, thanks)
Mostly I just don’t really understand why this was picked for the Service95 bookclub? There are so many other plays out there that explore similar topics in a more careful and timely way. From what I understand this kinda became a 21st century classic play, but I don’t think reading the script is the best way to approach it.
Read this for Dua Lipa’s bookclub and had never heard of it before + I’m not a theater person so take this review with a grain of salt.
I can see how this could be enjoyable or at least entertaining as a performance; reading it, however, is a different story. After reading some reviews of it, I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but I didn’t find it particularly well done nor interesting. There is some value in interrogating national identity, but the way it was approached felt a bit dated (as did the language, we could’ve done without the racial slurs, thanks)
Mostly I just don’t really understand why this was picked for the Service95 bookclub? There are so many other plays out there that explore similar topics in a more careful and timely way. From what I understand this kinda became a 21st century classic play, but I don’t think reading the script is the best way to approach it.
November 5, 2017
‘Jerusalem’ won best play of the year in 2009 but surely we’ve moved on? Isn’t there something hypocritical about middle-class theatre-goers laughing their heads off at the losers in society and feeling chuffed for not denigrating them - drug addicts whose every crass sentence includes a four-letter word and who wallow in chicken-shit - when in real life most people in the audience would shoo them away if they came anywhere near their homes? The scene is a gypsy drug-dealer’s caravan in a copse on the outside of town where teenagers can hang out and get high without complaint – and that’s the plot. I am grateful that Jez Butterworth has dropped Pinter’s influence with his newest and truly great play, The Ferryman.
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
February 13, 2020
I guess this needs to be seen on stage and not read.
As a text it's really hard to get through, the language is too colourful and the characters too unpleasant.
It's well crafted and pops off the page, but to what end? As I understand, it's meant as a state of the nation play, but whatever the deeper meanings are, it all went over my foreign head.
As a text it's really hard to get through, the language is too colourful and the characters too unpleasant.
It's well crafted and pops off the page, but to what end? As I understand, it's meant as a state of the nation play, but whatever the deeper meanings are, it all went over my foreign head.
November 26, 2022
not gonna lie, i didn’t jive with it as much as my class seemed to, but I have a feeling seeing it live would change my opinion (cause it seems like it could be a banger on stage)
January 9, 2023
Loud, crude and magical. A midsummer night's dream with a cast of drug dealers and wasters. Brilliant.
February 4, 2025
Last read this 11 years ago in college and it’s still as good as it was back then! Great play, one i’d love to see one day!
April 25, 2026
3.5 stars. Definitely entertaining, and had me constantly wanting to know how things would pan out. The main character is easy to hate but also easy to root for, which makes for a more intriguing read.
June 6, 2018
I love this play. Saw Rylance in it and he was superb. Brilliant opening scene. Looking forward to seeing it again at the Watermill, Newbury soon.
September 18, 2024
ive been studying this for english lit and we finally finished it!! i definitely would've enjoyed this more if id actually seen the play but it was still good and definitely has been very interesting to write about so far
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews