Rooster's Wood Play Analysis

Teya Hutchison 1802
“In conventional comedies the green world is a place of refuge. How far would you say that Rooster’s Wood, by contrast, is a place full of danger, violence and cruelty?”
Northrop Frye has argued that the ‘green world’ of comedy operates as a temporary place of freedom from a dangerous outside world. For Johnny Byron, his woodland kingdom represents liberty and release from the restrictions of an over-inhibited and conformist ‘real world’, but this lack of respect for civilisation does not come without a comeuppance. In some ways Rooster’s Wood is a fully functional ‘green world’, meeting many of the criteria that the comedic trope employs regarding nature, freedom and magical tendencies. Although it can also easily be argued that the area is more a source trouble and pain for the characters of Jerusalem, and Johnny himself, than it is a place of liberty.
It is easy to label Rooster’s Wood as a place of danger and violence due to the occurrences that take place throughout the play, especially when we look at the dramatic ending. The vast examples of
‘blowtorch[es]’, ‘branding iron[s]’, ‘grappling’ and ‘awful beating’ that appear in this final scene truly display that there is no place where those seeking safety can be unharmed. Troy and his men take it upon themselves (despite not being ideal citizens either) to enforce the rules and regulations of the town of Flintock onto Johnny, and punish him with a savage display of aggression for being an individual and not conforming to the laws of society; the hostility also provides an argument that states Rooster’s Wood cannot be considered the safe haven that a green world is supposed to be as it is clear even Johnny- their courageous leader- is not exempt from the harsh truths of the real world.
That said, there is an alternative view that can be taken on the situation which is: that although Roosters Wood may not be perfectly safe, in some ways for select characters it is safer and easier than their lives back at home, in civilisation. The idea of a ‘green world’ represents freedom from all of the usual restraints of civilised life, being there is typically seen as a holiday during which the characters can play and time is immaterial. For some, Johnny’s wood does agree with this. He has taken in the outcasts of the town of Flintock and given them a place to feel they belong to where they can be themselves and no one will harass them because they don’t fit the stereotype of a typical English villager in Flintock- which is seen as being designed by Butterworth to be a microcosm of England and its traditions. This is certainly evident for Ginger, who is socially unwanted and 0.not once does Johnny ever truly judge him for being who he is, not like Parsons and Fawcett do to Johnny. This idea of acceptance and the providence of safety is also true for characters like the Professor, whom has lost his mind to a point where he truly believe that Ginger is the maths professor, ‘Doctor Maureen Pringle’; he requires people to look out for him and be kind to him, despite the fact that he doesn’t make much sense, and Johnny and his friends supply this without ever even acknowledging how accepting they are of the nutty Professor. Johnny even says to him ‘What about Mary?’, as if this ‘Mary’ character is really around somewhere when it is clear to the audience that she isn’t, Johnny’s genuine question with no sarcasm or joke making shows us that he is clearly trying to protect the Professor and keep him happy. A final example of Johnny’s unconditional acceptance is with the teenage girls, Tanya, Pea and Phaedra. It is suggested that Tanya has an unhappy family life back in the town and so Johnny is providing her with a safe place to run away to where she will be treated simply with no unkind actions. Johnny tells her to ‘Stay round Hayley’s, you don’t wanna go home…’ which connotes that maybe there is some unpleasant business in her home which means she won’t want to be there. Also with Phaedra, there is implication that her stepdad Troy has an inappropriate interest in her- this is implies when Johnny says to Troy ‘Bet it’s hard to sleep with her next door. She in your dreams, boy?’. This is Johnny’s way of tormenting Troy by outlining his own flaws and bad decisions or feelings, he doesn’t say it out loud and the fact that he only has to imply something and Troy has such an aggressive reaction shows us he knows exactly what Johnny is talking about. Johnny letting her hide out in his caravan displays how really he cares for these people and would rather let them be happy in his version of a ‘green world’ than see them suffer in their unsafe homes. It is true that in conventional comedies the green world is typically a place of refuge, one thing that makes it so is that within this world there are typically magical beings and human kind is more in touch with nature; Rooster’s Wood agrees with these ideas to an extent. He lives with very little in the way of modern technology; he sits on wood stumps and builds fires for heat etc. This very essential way of living reminds us of scenes like where the fairies live in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is most definitely a green world. Johnny also spins out tales of meeting with giants and being kidnapped by Nigerian traffic wardens, or Ginger describes an occasion when Johnny was supposedly pronounced dead and yet awoke completely unharmed. These tales told in the surroundings of pure nature temporarily blur the boundaries between myth and reality and for moments it seems possible that Rooster and his wood could indeed be magical or mythical. This also combines with the idea of the area being a refuge- it is almost a separate world where occurrences can be isolated from the outside society, which results in safety. Nevertheless this is a very romantic view to take on things, realistically Johnny never provides any definitively traceable evidence of his myths and legends that he talks of so it could be said he is merely a crazy old man who had made up tales of himself to seem more interesting and enchanting. Without the believable myths to support him as a leader, it is also hard to see the wood as a safe refuge- if Johnny is a phony then how can it be believed that his wood is a protected asylum? Furthermore, he openly litters the surroundings with an abundance of drugs, ‘smashed television[s]’, ‘mouldy couch[es]’, ‘plastic chairs’ and much more, he even fills the wood with the noise pollution created by his multiple parties and ‘gatherings’- all spilling out the modern noise of drum and bass or intense dance music. This displays his blatant lack of regard for the natural beauty of this supposed ‘green world’. The idea of cruelty being in Rooster’s Wood is complex, undoubtedly, it is clear that Johnny is severely punished by both the council and Troy at the end of the play, he is beaten to a point where we do not know if he will live and it has also been announced that within the next few hours after the play ends, he will be evicted and will lose his home of many, many years. Although these cruel events do occur within Rooster’s Wood, we cannot say that it is the green world that is cruel because in actual fact it is the society of Flintock which penetrates Rooster’s Wood and brings those elements in. Johnny does not even fight back to Troy, when approached by the aggressive men who intend to harm him, he simply ‘stretch[es] his arms wide [and] smiles’; showing no signs of threat and taking what society is throwing at him. The fact that he ‘smiles’ specifically implies that he feels no anger towards these men- they show hatred and animosity toward him and he responds with acceptance of what will happen and a positive smile, as if he knows he will be okay in the end. Categorically, there is never a dispute between the characters within the green world- they live in absolute harmony and it is only with the introduction of characters from civilisation that things begin to turn ugly.
In conclusion I do not agree with the statement, I believe that obviously, in the eyes of civilisation Rooster’s Wood is anything but a peaceful ‘green world’- but Johnny is not the antagonist in the eyes of the people whom he is accommodating and providing with a safe haven.
Without him and his home, the characters like The Professor, Lee, Ginger, Pea, Phaedra and Tanya would be suffering the discouraging lives that their suppressive town supplies. All that Johnny does is continuously aim to provide the people around him with a non-judgemental place where they can feel free to behave as they wish without being made to feel anything but worthwhile, and mostly this is what ‘Rooster’s Wood’ gives. Also, as Northrop Frye has observed: “even the green world suffers from confusion and at times even discord”, so it is only expected that the characters must suffer some hardship within their perfect
world.

Bibliography:
Jerusalem, Royal Court Theatre production, 2009 (streamed performance, viewed 05/01/15 at The Victoria and Albert Museum)
‘Review: Jerusalem’, Anna Shepherd, Oxford Student Online (06/11/14) ‘An alternative green and pleasant land’, Patrick Marmion, spiked-online (23/02/10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENEoRHLuZ1I Jez Butterworth and Mark Rylance on Theater Talk, discussing play with hosts, Susan Harkins and Michael Riedel (18/05/11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTJYmBqQcw4
Mark Rylance discussing play on Newsnight (29/09/11)

Jerusalem Study Guide, Godalming College, 2012

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