For her April Monthly Read, Service95 Book Club founder Dua Lipa sat down with playwright Jez Butterworth to discuss his modern masterpiece, Jerusalem: a raw, visceral portrait of myth, rebellion and a nation wrestling with its own identity.
In this video, we hear Jerusalem in Jez’s own voice, as he reads a powerful excerpt from the play featuring Johnny “Rooster” Byron dispensing life advice to his young son Marky. It’s a rare father-son moment filled with folklore and the wild inheritance of blood and belonging. “It was, at that point in 2009, the hardest thing I’d ever attempted to write,” says Jez of this particular passage. “It was a massive challenge for me.”
At the heart of Jerusalem is an England in tension. Through Rooster, Jez conjures a world where myth and reality sit side by side, where stories are rich with layered meaning and where identity is shaped as much by imagination as it is by place. As he reads this passage aloud, that tension comes into sharp focus. What begins as a father speaking to his son unfolds into something elemental. You’ll have to listen to find out how.
Watch the video here or listen to the podcast here.
There’s More – Delve Deeper Into Jerusalem With The Service95 Book Club...
WATCH Dua’s interview with playwright Jez Butterworth
LISTEN to their 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
