It was the barnstorming, defining performance of Mark Rylance’s stage career, winning him Tony and Olivier awards. Now, it has been announced that Rylance will return to the role of Johnny “Rooster” Byron 12 years on, as Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem is to be revived in the West End next year.
The production will also reunite the play’s original director, Ian Rickson, with the producer Sonia Friedman, whose company announced the news on Thursday, which is St George’s Day – the date on which the play is set.
See You Next Year... #Jerusalem #HappyStGeorgesDay pic.twitter.com/ZM59j4oI4U
— Sonia Friedman Productions (@SFP_London) April 23, 2020
Butterworth’s richly sprawling play, which unfolds at a county fair in Wiltshire and explores English myths, was first staged at the Royal Court in 2009 with a cast that included Mackenzie Crook. It became a sensation, later triumphing in the West End and on Broadway. Rylance’s return in the role of the pied piper-esque Rooster has long been anticipated by theatre fans. In 2018, the play was revived at the Watermill theatre in Newbury, directed by Lisa Blair and starring Jasper Britton in the lead role. Last year, Jerusalem was named as the Guardian’s best play of the 21st century so far.
