Seminar review: ThinkIn with Jez Butterworth on Jerusalem

Ahead of the re-staging of the 2009 production of Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth met with co-founder and editor of Tortoise (and old friend), James Harding, for a ThinkIn session discussing the story behind the production and what the playwright believes the play says about us as a society. The session was a collaborative Q&A, with attendees poking and prodding Butterworth with some challenging and comical questions. 

A true sign of an intellectual is in the ability to break down extremely elaborate concepts and express them in a way that everyone can understand, and Jez Butterworth undoubtedly possesses this quality. When challenged by an elaborate question about the intricacies of the political landscape within Jerusalem, Butterworth merely says that if the play was a bowl of fruit then to him politics would be the bowl - it has to be there, but it is not what he is focused on or related to what he is trying to say.