Jerusalem

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, like, I went to see lots of plays, like I was saying, and I saw this one called Jerusalem by a guy called Jez Butterworth.

It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

I was in tears.

Like, when he was setting up his family, like, we knew what he was doing and, uh, and yeah, just, just comedy gold.

Did you watch Mark Rylance when he did Jerusalem in any incarnation? So like, I think Royal Court, West End, any time.

He's been back a few times now.

No, I didn't.

... on that stage or s- or sound stage.

And also, what I kept thinking about whilst watching him was the characters couldn't be more different.

Like, who he played in Jerusalem to who he's playing now.

You know, in Jerusalem he was Johnny Rooster Byron, and, like, that character was huge.

Okay, let's get to the other things.

Favourite play or theatre show or musical? You've given us Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth.

Tell us about this.

Yeah, I saw that in New York, and yeah, that's a very acclaimed play.

But obviously his work I'd seen.

I remember, I think Jerusalem was like the play that I saw that made me want to be an actor.

Do you know what I mean? No, that's not true.

That's not true.

I wanted to be an actor.

And I remember I went to see Jerusalem on one of its last shows in its first run.

And...

I like queued up, bought a ticket, sat in the front row and I'd like woken up really early.

got soaked.

That's quite a Jerusalem line, isn't it?

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

And...

Jez Butterworth is the playwright he's kind of a huge playwright now in London and wrote a play called Jerusalem and several other things The Ferryman as well which is just on recently in Dublin um but yeah michael played this very sort of sweet natured uh sort of set upon kind of um fella in in in that in in the play we did mojo was called um and it's just interesting to see the kind of roles he's played since are much more kind of like front foot

aggressive kind of

yeah yeah yeah um so yeah i think he'd be i think he'd be my quint

for some reason or other, nobody smelled smoke.

I think he had that sort of almost mystical, magical Welsh charisma, which reminds me very much of the lead character in Jerusalem, who's obviously English, but what's his name? Yeah, yeah.

He's of a similar kind.

Right, yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm a big fan of Butterworth.

I was a big fan of Jerusalem.

That was another play when I remember reading and thinking like, well, too bad we can't do this at Ensemble.

The trailer

And she said she was taught by Jez Butterworth, who is a brilliant playwright and has also directed.

He wrote Jerusalem.

Oh, wow.

She said to him, don't be the person to pick up the piece of paper.