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Date & Time

Wednesday 19 October 2022
6.30pm to 7.30pm

Tickets

Complimentary. Please note that places for this event are limited and therefore we encourage you to register as soon as possible.

Registration

Please register via the ‘Register here’ button. The link to the event will be sent to the email address provided on the registration form a couple of days before the event.

Guests

You’ll be given a link to the event. You should not share this link, but members of your household are welcome to join the call (these guests will be with you on camera, using the same device/Zoom account). 

Booking deadline

Monday 17 October 2022

General Information

For further information or if you have any enquiries, please contact the Development Office on 01223 338700 or at development@joh.cam.ac.uk

Johnian Society Virtual Talk: Interview with Jez Butterworth (1988)

Jez Butterworth (1988) is a playwright, director and screenwriter whose notable works include Mojo, Jerusalem and The Ferryman. Jez followed his brother Tom (1985) to St John’s to study English Literature.

According to a 2011 interview in The Guardian, ‘As a teenager at the local comprehensive, he went up to Cambridge to watch his older brother Tom in a production of Brian Friel’s Translations. “That was my moment,” he said. “I thought: ‘I’m coming here, I’m doing that’.”‘

Jez’s theatre work, for which he has received Laurence Olivier Awards, Tony Awards and many more, has been performed to audiences in the West End and Broadway. He has written for film and television, often co-writing and creating with his brothers Tom and John-Henry. He has worked with theatre legends Harold Pinter and Mark Rylance.

Emily Brand (1987), a member of the Johnian Society Committee, will host the conversation with Jez, exploring his writing journey from that moment as a teenager and practising his craft at St John’s to becoming one of the most in-demand writers of his generation.

The interview will be followed by a Q&A during which the audience will be invited to put their questions to Jez. Questions can also be sent in advance to development@joh.cam.ac.uk if you would prefer.

Programme:

6.15–6.30pm: Online check-in opens.

6.30pm: Event begins with a welcome message from Emily Brand, Committee member of the Johnian Society.

6.30–6.35pm: Interview with Jez Butterworth

6.55pm onwards: Q&A and networking.

Biography

Jez Butterworth (1988)

Jez Butterworth is one of the UK’s leading playwrights. His plays include: Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1995; West End, 2013); The Night Heron (Royal Court, 2002); The Winterling (Royal Court, 2006); Parlour Song (Atlantic Theater, New York, 2008; Almeida Theatre, London, 2009); Jerusalem (Royal Court, 2009; West End, 2010; New York, 2011); The River (Royal Court, 2012) and The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017). Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers’ Guild, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. Jerusalem won the Best Play Award at the Critics’ Circle, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage.com Awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The Ferryman won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics’ Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play, as well as the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play. He wrote and directed the film adaptation of Mojo (1998) starring Ian Hart and Harold Pinter, and Birthday Girl (2002) starring Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin, and co-wrote and produced Fair Game (2010) starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. In 2007 he was awarded the E.M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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