Jez Butterworth’s breakthrough play, Mojo, won rave reviews
in 1995, then his 2009 play, Jerusalem, which featured a star turn from Mark
Rylance, gained him glowing reviews and critical acclaim yet again.
His latest play, which began life at the Royal Court and has now transferred to the West End, is The Ferryman. And it’s pretty fucking amazing.
In a nutshell, this black comedy drama love story tragedy (it beautifully interweaves elements of all these genres) tells the story of an Irish farming family in the early 1980s on the two days they reap the harvest from the family farm. The back story that drives the drama forward examines how British rule in Ireland and the Troubles have impacted on three generations of the family when a body is found in a peat bog and various chickens come home to roost.
The play scrutinises the hot topic of radicalisation, too, as the story moves towards its inevitably grim and bloody conclusion, which mixes elements of Greek and Irish myth.
Paddy Considine is the star name leading the cast and helping selling tickets in the West End. He is excellent, but it’s a real ensemble piece with a large group of actors that features children and tweens among its numbers.
Sam Mendes directs and there’s not a weak performance on the stage, but it’s Butterworth’s writing that is the real standout. At times, it’s poignant and moving, and, at other times, it’s laugh-out-loud funny with some great one-liners from the kids in particular. But it’s touching and eloquent and immensely layered without boasting about its own cleverness, too. Three and a bit hours just flew by.
Essentially, it’s a beautifully crafted play and it’s the sort of thing that’s made me want to write a stage play again after a bit of a lay-off. My effort may not be anywhere near as good as The Ferryman, but I have an astonishingly impressive model to inspire me, and that’s sometimes good enough to produce something that is at least half-decent.
His latest play, which began life at the Royal Court and has now transferred to the West End, is The Ferryman. And it’s pretty fucking amazing.
In a nutshell, this black comedy drama love story tragedy (it beautifully interweaves elements of all these genres) tells the story of an Irish farming family in the early 1980s on the two days they reap the harvest from the family farm. The back story that drives the drama forward examines how British rule in Ireland and the Troubles have impacted on three generations of the family when a body is found in a peat bog and various chickens come home to roost.
The play scrutinises the hot topic of radicalisation, too, as the story moves towards its inevitably grim and bloody conclusion, which mixes elements of Greek and Irish myth.
Paddy Considine is the star name leading the cast and helping selling tickets in the West End. He is excellent, but it’s a real ensemble piece with a large group of actors that features children and tweens among its numbers.
Sam Mendes directs and there’s not a weak performance on the stage, but it’s Butterworth’s writing that is the real standout. At times, it’s poignant and moving, and, at other times, it’s laugh-out-loud funny with some great one-liners from the kids in particular. But it’s touching and eloquent and immensely layered without boasting about its own cleverness, too. Three and a bit hours just flew by.
Essentially, it’s a beautifully crafted play and it’s the sort of thing that’s made me want to write a stage play again after a bit of a lay-off. My effort may not be anywhere near as good as The Ferryman, but I have an astonishingly impressive model to inspire me, and that’s sometimes good enough to produce something that is at least half-decent.
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