Jerusalem

He is an outsider, disparaged by public institutions, He is called “the Rooster”, but his name is Johnny Byron, and he is a living legend, a notorious drug dealer, the soul of any party, but also the terror of decent people’s neighbourhoods – victims of his aggressive acts triggered by the drug abuse. Through an ingenious textual play, fluctuating between the Biblical landscape and the miserable suburbs of contemporary England, the play “Jerusalem” depicts an overwhelming space at the border between the rough reality and the carnival setting of medieval imagination, portraying a magnetic character in which the Christian resemblance and the profile of a drug addict, defeated by the hostile society surrounding him, intertwine to the point of confusion. The universe portrayed by playwright Jez Butterworth, inspired by the contemporary society of suburban England, but recognisable in any other urban space, brings a perspective that is both aggressive and tender, violent and sensitive, over the collective hypocrisy of today’s society, which prefers to ignore uncomfortable realities. Bogdan Sărătean’s directing vision, inspired by Jez Butterworth's modern approach, not recommended to puritans, provides an overview of the existential context typical to suburbs – drug consumption, obscene language, acts of cruelty ignored by justice, at the same time drawing a picture of current social tensions.