After Covid, comfort in the stalls. That, at any rate, was last year’s favourite theory: that post-pandemic theatre, seeking security by turning to familiar musicals and plays, was likely to go tepid. Here is a week that proves the conclusion wrong. Two revivals – one restaging of a brilliant 13-year-old production, one complete remaking of an 82-year-old play – are both in turn rousing and disturbing. Both are unmissable.
Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem first burst into the Royal Court in 2009, bringing a luscious roll of language, a group of wayward spirits new to the stage and a 3D sensuality (smells reeked off the boards). Mark Rylance’s performance as Johnny “Rooster” Byron proved to be one of the most magnificent acting events of the past 20 years.
