Jerusalem **** TNT
The opening moments of Jez Butterworth’s arresting new state-of-the-nation comedy shift in an instant - from whimsical innocence to late night rave to the cold light of day and an eviction order.
Set in a leafy Wiltshire woodland clearing where ageing biker Johnny “Rooster” Byron has parked his mobile home in long-term defiance of the council and the new housing development just yards away, it shows the older generation as lost as the aimless – sometimes underage - youngsters who congregate to drink, take drugs and escape a bland, boring existence.
It’s St George’s day and the 15 year old Queen of the May has, yet again, gone missing in her angel outfit, Tom Brooke’s spaced-out Lee has a ticket to Australia - but there’s no guarantee he’ll even make it to the airport, Rooster’s sidekick Ginger, (Mackenzie Crook from The Office) still behaves like an overgrown schoolboy with fantasies of being a DJ, and Danny Kirrane’s Davey kills cows at the abattoir during the week then gets completely off his face come Friday night.
At just over three hours long, the script could be tighter in places, but Butterworth’s dialogue fizzes with comic originality and is clear-eyed about the flaws and failures in both traditional and current aspects of rural life. And in “Rooster” Byron he has created a formidable mix of drug-dealing Pied Piper, yarn-spinning Falstaff and charismatically eccentric has-been who knows the game is almost up.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Sloane Square tube (020 7565 5000) until 15th August (£10-£25)
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