JEZ BUTTERWORTH’s Jerusalem has been heralded as the greatest play of the century, but ahead of its new run at the weekend, the playwright is adamant that critics still miss the point.
“If this is any way a state-of-the-nation play, then I have failed abjectly,” he said last night.
Butterworth, speaking to James Harding at a Tortoise event, added: “You know how much I give a monkeys about the ‘state of the nation’.” He continued that Englishness was not a concern of his, explaining: “I don’t feel very English.”
Jerusalem was first performed in 2009 and starred Mark Rylance, who is returning for the latest run. Those hoping for contemporary events to appear in the play are likely to be disappointed. “The reason it is back,” Butterworth said, “is my daughter Bel never got the chance to see it.”
Suki’s music muse was Bhutan belly
SUKI WATERHOUSE’s turn from model to musician owes much to a trip to Bhutan with a friend. Waterhouse touched on their experience again — and how it affected the writing of single Melrose Meltdown — in an interview which caught The Londoner’s eye. “We found ourselves… with a lot of food poisoning, so we’re basically just vomiting a lot of the time, and we were very unfit for the trip. But I remember feeling very raw and open.” Hmm, sounds more like feeling very ill to us.
How I became the spit of Pistols star
ANSON BOON dialled it up to 11 when getting into character as Sex Pistols star Johnny Rotten. “I got down to just under eight stone… I had 14 different wigs… and fake teeth,” says Boon, who plays Rotten, now John Lydon, in Danny Boyle’s TV series. He also copied his diet — “everything had to be pickled” — and taught himself to be left-handed. Sadly, Lydon tried to ban the band’s songs from the show, but that hasn’t stopped Boon declaring to Rolling Stone: “I just felt so in love with him.” What’s the acting version of Stockholm Syndrome?
HEIRESS India Rose James was on fine form at a dinner she held with artist Layla Andrews. “I don’t eat meat,” she told us, before adding she was a “selectatarian” — so lobster and chicken nuggets were still on the menu. At Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Faye Wei Wei, Francesca Hayward and Omari Douglas were backstage at a Florence + The Machine gig.
SW1A
ED BALLS is playing coy over rumours he may stand for Parliament again as the Labour candidate in the expected Wakefield by-election. Last night he posted a photo of himself running in New York. “‘Look, he’s running’ he wants us to say,” sighed journalist Sam Coates, adding: “Exhausting”.
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STEVE BAKER MP has issued a bizarre warning to his Tory colleague Rishi Sunak. In a video of Baker training with an MMA instructor, he tells the man, “Imagine I’m the Chancellor and I’ve excluded you from Christmas support.” The man slams him onto his back. “Your turn next, Rishi,” Baker adds.
