Star Mark Rylance offers hope for those who missed hit play on both side of the Atlantic suggesting a return 'in five or 10 years'
There have rarely been scenes like it: people queueing for up to 24 hours without sleep through a desperately cold night to get tickets to a serious, thought-provoking and lengthy West End play that addresses a myriad of issues about England, society and how we should live our lives.
The play is Jerusalem, a production that seems to have united almost everyone who has seen it – left and right, young and old – in praise approaching religious fervour. It ends its run on Saturday after 394 performances over nearly three years. Almost 300,000 people will have seen it in the West End, on Broadway, or during its initial run at London's Royal Court.
But for those who did not see it, the play's star, Mark Rylance, offered hope. He told the Guardian: "I don't think that's it for me and the play. I would hope that I can come back and play it again in five or 10 years, give it a period of rest and then if the play still inspires production and they still want me, I'd be thrilled to play it again with five or six years of life experience."
Jerusalem, written by Jez Butterworth and directed by Ian Rickson, has got audiences talking about big subjects – Englishness, change, authority, life. Rylance has his own theories on why it resonates: "The general story that people are told about the meaning of life at the moment is all logical and scientific and rational and economic … You have to spend every minute of your day paying your bills and thinking about them."
Jerusalem offered something more, he said. "People are starving for deeper meaning and deeper stories in life because the church isn't really answering that any more. People are hungry for something in life to have more depth or sensation than the story they're told they have to worry about all the time."
It is Rylance's Tony and Olivier award-winning performance as Rooster Byron, a loud, anarchic Pied Piper of lost causes, which stands out.
He said he had always liked people like Rooster. "I know that they can turn on you and I know that you can sink if you try and swim along with them, but I like people like that a lot. I'd be horrified if society cleared out those people which I think in certain parts of England, and certainly America, those people have been cleared out. Much like indigenous people have been cleared out."
As Dominic Cooke, artistic director of the Royal Court, says: "It's about society's relationship to the outsider and society's need to destroy the outsider."
Rylance said he was thrilled by the reaction and the astonishing queues, which Time Out labelled as the 'Occupy Jerusalem' movement. "I've never experienced anything like it," said the actor, who has been chatting with the queuers at midnight all week, offering a gift of whisky one night.
On Thursday, the first queuer arrived at 2.50pm to be there for the 10am opening of the box office. On Friday the first was there at 10.30am.
On Wednesday morning, the queue snaked all around to the back of the theatre and was a friendly, diverse crowd headed by superfan Nigel Asije, a 24-year-old media student who travelled from Brighton to be first absurdly early - 6.40pm the previous night. "I feel good, I feel ready," he said looking admirably perky after nearly 15 hours camped on Shaftesbury Avenue with no sleep. "This will be my ninth time. I've been saying to others in the queue that it's like nothing you'll ever see in the West End. It's almost an anomaly, in that we're surrounded by all these traditional productions and then there is this which stands out like a sore thumb. It's so honest and the performances by the entire cast are just tremendous. Every time I see it, it's like I'm seeing it for the first time."
Asije chats nerdily about the tiny things that change in each production. " If this was running longer I'd see it another 10 times."
Behind him are friends Edd Bird, 18, who works at a nearby theatre, and Alex Naylor, 20, a fine arts student. "We heard it was closing and there's been such a hype," said Bird. "I think the queueing adds to the experience."
Both said they enjoyed their night. "I expected to be sat on the street bored and frozen and miserable," said Naylor. "But it's been really lovely, really friendly – we all queue nicely."
Further back, Ros Barber, a writer from Brighton about to have her first novel published, is counting the numbers nervously, unsure of whether she'll get a pair of evening tickets for her and her husband even though she arrived at 2.30am.
Despite that, her spirits are high. "It is the best queue I've ever been in, there is a real camaraderie. We've had a guitar and a fiddle since four."
Barber said she had seen the play once already, and been reduced to tears. "It blew me away. I'd heard a lot about it and thought it could be hyped, that it could be disappointing, but it wasn't.
"It is about what it is to be English right now but it has these roots back through every idea of Englishness that we've had. All of the cast are fantastic, but Mark Rylance is stunning, just stunning. The whole thing feels very magical and you laugh a lot but I cried buckets as well."
But isn't queuing through the night to see a play slightly unhinged? "Anyone who hasn't made an effort to see this show is unhinged."
The diversity of the audiences has been noteworthy. You've been as likely to see a Tory peer in the audience as an Occupy protestor. Since it transferred to the West End, famous names in audience have gone from Bob Dylan to Gary Lineker.
Rickson, the play's director, said: "I feel thrilled that a new play that emerged from the subsidised culture – which is under threat – should be such a rock'n'roll event. But I also feel sorry for the people getting cold at night."
He said he had no idea it would become so big. "I had a good feeling about one thing which was the spirit the playwright was channelling and something about that defiance and energy felt very rousing.
"The play is a rousing cry for a connection to the land and community. It is a spirit of defiance which we've really got to hold on to."
Rickson said he was looking forward to Saturday night and had been giving notes to the company as late as last Monday. "The play is about time and things moving on, which will be a powerful environment to watch the final performance in."
Back in the queue and guaranteed tickets was Adrian Hau, who admitted he had no idea what the play was about. He was unashamedly following the hype and advice from friends.
"It's not just that they're saying it's good, they're saying this is the most incredible thing you'll ever see," he said. "It had better be good."