Justin Butcher invites invite you to the Pleasance Theatre, Islington, next weekend, where he is doing just 2 performances of his one-man play, Scaramouche Jones, on January 25th & 26th at 7.30pm. Box office: 020 7609 1800, or book online at http://www.pleasance.co.uk. Pleasance Theatre, North Road, London N7 9EF. Nearest tube Calendonian Road, Piccadilly line.

Reviews and insight into the performance:

•  “A mesmerising piece of storytelling theatre” (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian)
• “Justin Butcher’s fascinating, poignant, funny play” (Jeremy Kingston, The Times)
• “A masterpiece of solo Magic Realism, impeccably written, perfectly performed” (Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide)
• “A superbly inventive monologue played with electrifying energy by the show’s author, Justin Butcher.” (Lloyd Evans, The Spectator)
• “This extraordinary solo piece by Justin Butcher – a hilarious, picaresque and terrifying fairy tale … an extraordinary confrontation between unmitigated evil and the spirit of healing comedy that is completely moving.” (John Peter, The Sunday Times)

Extract from A Spectacle Of Dust, autobiography of the late Pete Postlethwaite:

“My appetite for the theatre was increasing and I’d also begun working on a project by Justin Butcher, called Scaramouche Jones. Justin and the director, Rupert Goold, wanted to put it on and sent it to my agent. I adored it and … was certain from the off.

It spanned the hundred years of the twentieth century and had a cast of one: me. I played a hundred-year-old clown on the last night of his life, looking back at his own story, a story that took in numerous adventures across the globe.Scaramouche was an everyman character, a clown by trade. He had an extraordinary capacity for making people laugh and took the sins of the world on his shoulders, despite being an ordinary clown.

Justin’s script was phenomenal in its detail, like a baroque cathedral. I pictured it as a massive oratorio with different notes. Scaramouche had seven white masks that had been accumulated at various points in his life and he wanted to rid himself of them so that he could go naked into death. Each night was emotionally liberating and new; I’ve never been a musician but I imagine if I were to play a piece by Bach I’d interpret the notes in a different way each time I played. That’s how I can best describe it.”

•  “Hilarious – storytelling at its best” (Benedict Nightingale, The Times)
• “See Scaramouche Jones or you will regret it.” (Robert Iles, What’s On Stage)
• “Justin Butcher’s gloriously elegiac prose” (Sophie Gorman, Irish Independent)
• “Unique … stunning … a new kind of theatre” (Karen Joyner, Metro)
• “Remarkable … a joyous odyssey” (Jeremy Brien, The Stage)
• “Genius behind the mask of a clown … Butcher’s use of language is sensational … dense, inventive and beautifully constructed … every line dances” (Vicky Frost, Bristol Evening Post)
• “If you only see one play this year make this it” (Alison Bellamy, Yorkshire Evening Post)
• “Tragic, funny and superbly delivered” (Cameron England, Adelaide Advertiser)
• “Brilliantly written … poetry drips from every beautifully turned line.” (Robert Horne, Adelaide Independent Weekly)
• “Stunning piece of theatre … hilarious and touching, tragic and genuine.” (Jamie Wright, Adelaide Theatre Guide)