A Cambridge graduate, like Sam Mendes, Butterworth collaborated early on with Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong. He had a brief acting career and writing for television before his first major success Mojo at The Royal Court in 1995, winning the Olivier Award and writing the screenplay in 1997, which starred Harold Pinter a playwright who had influenced a lot of his work. In 2001 he returned to film with Birthday Girl, a film starring Ben Chaplin and Nicole Kidman.
The Royal Court has been home to many of Butterworth’s most successful works. His play Jerusalem with Mark Rylance in 2009. It sold out in its London home and transferred to New York, winning Butterworth and Rylance multiple awards. The River, starring Dominic West also produced both sides of the Atlantic to rave reviews.
Butterworth returns to Royal Court, before a West End transfer to the Gielgud with The Ferryman. His star power attracting another huge name in the form of Paddy Considine. The success of Butterworth’s productions is not about the casting but about him. He has a reputation for quality and his collaboration with Mendes in The Ferryman not only is an interesting story about 1981 Northern Ireland, but an opportunity to see the work of London’s finest theatre practitioners.