Jerusalem
The Watermill Theatre, Berkshire Until Jul 21, 3hrs
The actor Mark Rylance utterly triumphed in the role of Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron in Jez Butterworth’s 2009 play set in Wiltshire on St George’s Day. Jasper Britton now fills Rylance’s boots in the lead in this rich, sweary, rampaging play that takes a leak on Countryfile’s bushy-tailed vision of rural life.
I can’t think of an actor better suited than Jasper Britton to revive the role of Byron, a charismatic reprobate who lives in a manky caravan (this tiny rural theatre is the perfect venue) and entertains the local kids with drugs, booze and tall tales.
He’s threatened by a local thug, deplored by his ex and hounded by the local council. Rooster’s breakfast? Milk, raw egg, slug of vodka, dose of speed, all downed in one.
Britton’s Rooster (above) – looking like a roadie for Motörhead – is an earthy old badger with an epic gift for blarney
The cast includes a cocaine-snorting publican dressed as a morris man, an abattoir worker, Rooster’s still mesmerised ex-girlfriend and assorted kids all wanting a wrap of whizz (speed)
This is a play in which the locals think ‘abroad’ starts at Chippenham. If anything, Brexit has amplified its spirit of rebellion against high-vis-vest bossiness, tick-box conformity and progress.
Britton’s Rooster – looking like a roadie for Motörhead – is an earthy old badger with an epic gift for blarney. He tells how he once met a giant on the A14. His sidekick Ginger (Peter Caulfield, excellent) hilariously torpedoes the tale by wondering how the story was missed by BBC Points West.
The cast includes a cocaine-snorting publican dressed as a morris man, an abattoir worker, Rooster’s still mesmerised ex-girlfriend and assorted kids all wanting a wrap of whizz (speed). Yet Rooster is not just a threat – he shelters, movingly, a young May queen from her abusive stepfather.
If director Lisa Blair’s cast is a bit uneven, the great thing is that the production does justice to writing that’s pin-drop good. And Jasper Britton, thumping a drum at the end and invoking the lost gods of a mythical England, is just tremendous.
Translations
Olivier Stage, National Theatre, London Until Aug 11, 2hrs 30mins
Rating: 
This superb 1980 play by the late Irishman Brian Friel is set in 1833 in a tiny Donegal schoolroom. Owen (Colin Morgan) returns from Dublin with two British officers, whose project is to create a new map Anglicising all the Irish place names.
Owen (Colin Morgan, above) returns from Dublin with two British officers, whose project is to create a new map Anglicising all the Irish place names
It’s a story about love, language and colonisation. Friel’s great trick is to have the whole cast speaking English.
But you soon realise the locals are actually talking in their only tongue, Gaelic, and neither side can understand the other.
The device works a dream when local lass (Judith Roddy) and the young officer (Adetomiwa Edun) fall head over heels. Unable to communicate, they trade place names as if they were kisses. The stakes are further raised when the officer goes missing and the British sappers threaten savage reprisals.
Acted out under huge pewter skies, Ian Rickson’s revival occasionally feels dwarfed by the great size of the Olivier stage. But it lovingly reveals a deep, rich, rainy play in a class all of its own.
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