Transcript Jerusalem: Contexts Saturday, 07 November Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS The Play       First performed: Royal Court Theatre 2009 Transferred to the West End: 2010 First broadway production:

Jerusalem:
Contexts
Saturday, 07 November
2015
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
The Play
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First performed: Royal Court Theatre 2009
Transferred to the West End: 2010
First broadway production: 2011
Returns to West End: 2011
Indivisible from the actor playing Rooster
Byron: Mark Rylance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrdKme_
QU48&list=PLyPrb5LbqEDO31TWr99eHP0u912H
xt0Js&index=19
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
The Time
 August
2011: Riots in major English towns
 October 2011: Occupy movement
moved to occupy the Stock Exchange,
leading to eventual occupation of St.
Paul’s not removed until February 2012.
 Anti capitalist protests.
 Dale Farm Traveller eviction in October
2011. Land had been used since 2001.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
Prescient?
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Do the events of the Autumn of 2011 have an
impact on our perception of the play?
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In what way? Discuss this.
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This is the Context of Reception. The
conditions in 2009 were not a starkly mirrored.
The play was a success, but became almost
legendary when it returned in 2011.
In what way might our consciousness of
events awake our consciences?
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Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
Setting:
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Wiltshire, in a “fictional” village based on
Pewsey.
Wiltshire represents “everywhere” –though a
Wiltshireman I will concede that the county
has few obvious external links to the wider UK,
in terms of perception, apart from
Stonehenge, Avebury and other ancient sites.
If Wiltshire is a synecdoche for the UK, then
can we extend the council destruction of the
forest to a wider aspect such as deforestation
of the whole planet in the search for profit?
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
So a battle between Money
and the right to be at home?
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“An Englishman’s home is his castle”. What does
this suggest to you about attitude?
Butterworth is on record as saying that this play is a
play about change – albeit unintentionally.
Rooster is desperate to stay but is being forced to
leave
The cycle is completed by Lee who is desperate to
leave but who seems to be “forced” to stay…
This cyclical nature is interesting and will form part
of our study.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
Why is it so successful?
 Mark
Rylance says the play is full of
“wildness and defiance” This might make
it appropriate for a 2011 world as people
come to terms with the Anti Capitalist
movement all over the Western World.
 Andrew Marr, a BBC commentator,
declares that in an “infantilised culture”
the mature and challenging nature of the
play came like “rain after a drought”.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS
WHEN?
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April 23rd
St. George’s Day
Shakespeare’s birth and death day.
Has become a celebration of Englishness
Which of the central ideas is English? The outsider
defending his castle or the authorities wanting to
cleanse and profiteer?
As we read, you will need to consider what the
presentation of Englishness in the play suggests.
Which is the dragon? The individual or the state?
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS