Ive had an extraordinary day, Mr Byron. I went to a village fair. I had a pint of beer. Then the next thing I remember is waking alone, in this wood, on a bed of bracken. All around me were outstretched green hands, supporting me, surrounding me, swaying in time with the sunlight. A million tiny green fingers, the tips scorched by the sun.

Jerusalem is perhaps the greatest play of the 21st century. Melancholic and bucolic in equal measure, Jez Butterworths masterpiece explores the splendour and the decay of Englishness, the confusion and clutter of identity, and the desperate urge to belong. We are shown a vision of England through the eyes of the people it has left behind; Johnny Rooster Byron and the layabouts who are drawn into his orbit of drunkenness and revelry. Jerusalem is at once a joyous carnival of folkloric carnage and a stagnant pit of sorrow, reminding you exactly what theatre is supposed to do.

Content Warnings
Frequent and extreme profanity, drug use, racism, misogyny, violence.