Mackenzie Crook Cast in JERUSALEM

Jerusalem, a new play by Jez Butterworth, will open in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court on 15 July (previews from 10 July), with a cast including Mackenzie Crook, Gerard Horan and Mark Rylance. The production will be directed by Ian Rickson and designed by Ultz, with sound by Ian Dickinson and music composed by Stephen Warbeck.

On St George's Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron, local waster and modern day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his children want their dad to take them to the fair, Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.
 
Jez Butterworth's new play is a comic, contemporary vision of life in our green and pleasant land.

Jez Butterworth's first play, Mojo, opened at the Royal Court in 1995, also directed by Ian Rickson. It won the George Devine Award, the Evening Standard, Writers' Guild and Critics' Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright, and the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. His other plays for the Royal Court include The Night Heron (2002) and The Winterling (2006), while his most recent play, Parlour Song, opened at the Atlantic Theatre in New York and at The Almeida Theatre in London. He wrote and directed the film  adaptation of Mojo (1997) , starring Harold Pinter, and Birthday Girl (2002), starring Nicole Kidman, In 2007 he received the E.M Forster award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2008 he wrote and produced Fair Game, starring Sean Penn, which is shooting now.

Mackenzie Crook made his debut at the Royal Court in 2007, in Ian Rickson's production of The Seagull. His other stage work includes One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (West End) and The Exonerated (Riverside Studios), while his screen work includes three Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Office (BBC TV) and Little Dorrit (BBC TV). He is currently filming The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (dir. Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson)

Mark Rylance is an award-winning actor and director. He was the first Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, from 1995 to 2005, where he played many Shakespearean leads, including Richard II, and Olivia in an all-male production of Twelfth Night, for which he won an Olivier Award for Best Actor. More recently, he won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Boeing Boeing (West End/Broadway), to add to a BAFTA award for The Government Inspector (Channel 4 TV) and an Olivier for his performance as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Queen's Theatre). His film roles include The Other Boleyn Girl, Intimacy, Prospero's Books and The Grass Arena (Radio Times Award for Best newcomer).

Ian Rickson was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 1998 to 2006. His productions for the Royal Court include The Seagull, Krapp's Last Tape, The Winterling, Alice Trilogy, The Sweetest Swing In Baseball, Fallout, The Night Heron, Boy Gets Girl, Mouth to Mouth (also West End), Dublin Carol, The Weir (also West End and Broadway), The Lights, Pale Horse, Mojo and Some Voices. Since leaving the Royal Court, he has directed Parlour Song (Almeida), The Hothouse (National Theatre) and screen adaptations of Fallout and Krapp's Last Tape.

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