What is your vision of England’s green and pleasant land?

Cricket on the green, gently rolling Devon hills , the dawn chorus , a nicely mowed front lawn?Or is the reality somewhat different. Fields covered in second homes with no room for the locals perhaps? Tents in the undergrowth, litter in the streams?Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth is being staged this June by Dartington Playgoers in the refined surroundings of the historic estate. Featuring giant tall tales, drunken Morris Men, wayward teens and an outlaw facing his last stand against The Man, it’s not Countryfile.

So, what is it?

I spoke to director Ceni Wyatt about why she wanted to bring this riotous slice of rural mayhem to life.

yeah. I think I quite fancy him as well.

“It’s a personal thing. I saw it about two years ago in a revival. My father had died five months before. I was blown away by the feeling of it. I came out and burst into tears and couldn’t stop crying for about half an hour.
Why? “The sense that every man has a right to live in this world wherever they want to live. We invented these borders, we invented the countries. If you got rid of it all we’d just be on this big planet. It’s a real sense of every man is the same at the end of the day. We do different things but we are all human beings, and it’s a humanist play I think.
“It just made me feel emotional and obviously I thought about my Dad. He was a fair man. He never hated anybody , never lost his temper. Something about that play reminded me of him.”

Forceable removal

Jerusalem is set on St George’s Fair Day in a small Westcountry town. Cock of the walk is Johnny “Rooster” Byron, who emerges from his woodland empire – a crappy caravan – to find the council is here to evict him.

Mates who drink his cider and snort his coke are his court. But his crown is slipping. Will the big bad world destroy his idyll?

Ceni said:”I started reading the play again and again and thought oh my God this is so relevant to Totnes. Because we have these people in Totnes who are in the play. We have people who live off grid, don’t conform and to be honest I love those sort of people.
“I think those stories don’t get heard a lot. And we have also got a whole tribe of locals in this play, and they get overlooked by the blow-ins and the new money and the new estate, while they are just getting on with their lives.”

Rooster’s camp is dangerously close to a new housing estate. There have been complaints. He cannot be allowed to piss on their paths and goose their wives any more.

I ask Ceni if she likes the character of Rooster, a daredevil bike rider who sells his rare Romany blood for the next round in the pub.

“I’m afraid I do, yeah. I think I quite fancy him as well. He’s got such a charm about him. There is a part of the play where I don’t like him (no spoilers here) but that’s the only time I don’t like him.”

A touch of pathos

The play is bawdy and brash but melancholy too.

“I think there are sad elements definitely. It is funny but there are really emotional moments. I always end up crying, and the fact is he has lived in these woods for almost 27 years and they haven’t been able to evict him and now it’s going to happen.”

Ceni made a bold decision to cast two actors as Rooster – for practical purposes as well as artistic ones. It is a huge part, and if one actor fell ill it would be the end of the performance.
It’s also given room for different interpretations by the two actors. One is “solid and hard” and the other more ”elf like”.

“The whole rehearsal period, the actors have been saying but, but am I this, am I that and I have said I don’t’ know, the actor has to make the decision. We have had loads of discussion at rehearsal. I think the play is wonderfully ambiguous all the way through.”

The characters gather by Johnny’s woodland camp to prepare for the Flintock Fair. A Professor, a wannabe DJ (actually an unemployed plasterer), a reluctant Morris man who has to get back behind the bar of his pub, lads and girls whose future is – what? One says he’s off to Australia . But will he go, or will he be sucked back into Johnny’s orbit like the older blokes who scrounge booze and drugs from him. And what of the missing Fair Queen, sweet 15 and never been kissed…or has she?

A change of scene

Ceni left drama school and worked as an actor for a few years.

“Well I did a lot of auditions! I worked in lots of theatres but mainly in the box office and the restaurant.”

She came back home to Paignton, met her husband Al and ran her own theatre company for a while before joining Playgoers. She’s been in many productions since then.

Does she hanker to be a professional actor again?

“When you are a professional it becomes very stressful. This isn’t particularly because there’s a lot of support around me and and it’s nobody’s actual job. My cast have been really dedicated – any one of them could be professional.”

With live music, a bar with Rooster cocktails and a canopy of the moon and stars, Jerusalem is set to be “two and a half hours of cracking live theatre”.

Jerusalem is on from June 18 – 22 at 7pm (matinee Saturday 2pm). Bring a blanket, a chair, a picnic and an open mind.

Tickets are on sale now from Dartington box office.