Dua’s Monthly Read for April is the very first play we’ll be exploring for the Service95 Book Club: Jerusalem by the award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth. “I first read it at 15 while studying for my English GCSE and its antihero, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron has stuck with me ever since,” she says. “Watching legendary actor Mark Rylance perform the role onstage in 2022 matched every single one of my expectations. Now, I feel like it’s time to bring that magic to you.”
In this episode, Dua sits down with Jez to discuss Jerusalem from the very beginning: revisiting the origins and evolution of his landmark work.
Few plays feel as expansive and elusive as Jerusalem. It unfolds within a single world, where modern England meets something closer to folklore and myth. Set in a fictional rural English village on St George’s Day, it is charged with a shimmering blend of history, myth and unrest that draws you in from the opening scene.
At its centre is ‘Rooster’, a near-legendary figure, both hero and antihero, holding court in a woodland clearing as he faces eviction. What unfolds is not simply the story of one man, but a wider exploration of belonging, community and the forces that shape who gets to remain and who is pushed out.
Guided by Jez’s instinctive, visceral approach to writing, the conversation traces the ideas, encounters and impulses that shaped Jerusalem, from the vivid figures of his youth to his fascination with defiance, duality and those who live at the edges of society.
You can watch their full conversation here, or listen to it as a podcast here. Key moments to look out for include...
Dua & Jez On The Larger-Than-Life Characters That Inspired Jerusalem
Dua and Jez reflect on how the playwright’s upbringing in St Albans, near one of the largest traveller communities in England, shaped the play. They discuss the vivid, often eccentric characters who populated his early world, including the unforgettable local eccentric Ginger Mills and Wiltshire rebel Micky Lay, whose presence echoes throughout the play, lending it a sense of lived-in authenticity while lifting it into something more mythic.
On Defiance & What It Means To Be An Outsider
The conversation turns to Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron and a shared fascination with defiant figures who resist authority. Both magnetic and deeply flawed, Rooster emerges as a character who unsettles the world around him, embodying a tension between freedom and consequence that sits at the heart of the play. His moral ambiguity – at once sacred and profane – speaks to a wider pull within Jez’s work: a fascination with characters who exist in contradiction, and who linger in the imagination long after they’ve gone.
On Belonging & Exclusion
As Rooster faces eviction from the woodland clearing he calls home, the focus shifts to the forces that shape community. Dua and Jez reflect on the tension between staying and leaving that runs through Jerusalem – those who want to leave but don’t, and those forced out despite wanting to stay. It raises a broader question of who is allowed to remain and who is pushed out, and how those lines are drawn.
On Writing, Instinct & Creative Process
The pair consider creative processes, drawing parallels between songwriting and playwriting, with a particular focus on Jez’s instinctive writing “state” and the patience it demands. Ideas, he explains, are often left to develop over years, even decades, frequently sparked by music and shaped in their own time.
At the heart of his approach is a simple guiding question: “Does it give me chills?” – a philosophy that allows instinct to take precedence, giving ideas space to unfold without over-explanation. He also touches on the lasting pull of Jerusalem and the possibility of its return to the stage.
There’s a lot more to uncover in their conversation, from the book Jez would gift everyone to the bookshops he returns to – offering a closer look at how he thinks, writes and finds inspiration. That same openness runs through the interview, reflecting a work that resists being neatly defined and is all the more powerful for it.
Watch their full conversation on Service95’s YouTube channel, or listen via the Service95 Book Club podcast here.
There’s More – Delve Deeper Into Jerusalem With The Service95 Book Club...
LISTEN to Dua and Jez’s conversation with the Service95 Book Club podcast
NOTE the books, films and TV shows that inspired Jerusalem
LEARN more about the origins of Jerusalem from Jez
PRESS PLAY on Jez’s writing soundtrack
READ about the first production of Jerusalem from the cast
DISCOVER the inspiration behind antihero Rooster
