Come, you giants – Jerusalem revival gives us hope good things will return

On a rather grim morning in which Rufus Norris raised serious fears about the survival of the British theatre industry as we know it, there was a glimmer of good news: Sonia Friedman Productions tweeted a moderately cryptic tweet strongly suggesting that Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, the greatest British theatre production of the 21st century, would be returning next year.

An hour later any mystery was cleared up: a second tweet clarified that the original production of Jerusalem would return for 2021, its revival directed by Ian Rickson and most crucially, it would star Mark Rylance as shamanic reprobate Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron.

’It feels like a promise that maybe good things can happen, that maybe we can have nice things’


There are many trite things that could greet the news of Jerusalem’s return during theatre’s bleakest hour in decades. It’s certainly cheered me up a bit, even if the path from here to sitting in a packed West End theatre (presumably) seems pretty difficult to imagine right now.

Still, I’m delighted – almost regardless of whether I see it – because I’ve been obsessed with the possibility of Jerusalem’s return almost since it was last on our stages in 2011. I did see it once, on its third and (hitherto) final London run, and yes, it is amazing, and yes, Rylance’s astonishing final speech as Rooster is the single greatest thing I’ve ever seen in a theatre… less acting, more magic, a human vortex swallowing time and space. Demand for tickets vastly outstripped supply, with hysterical stories of people queuing for two days to secure seats at the final show.