Out of the Margins

This bulging lot, stuffed with props from the original production, wrapped in a section of the original Royal Court St George's flag drop cloth signed by the entire creative team, bundled up with two signed programmes from the West End and Broadway productions, is almost as breathtaking to look at, feel, and witness as the play itself. 

Listed as one of Evening Standard's "50 best plays of the 21st century" and The Independent's "40 Best Plays of all time" (alongside Shakespeare's Hamlet and Alan Bennett's The History Boys) and coming in at number one of The Guardian's "50 best theatre shows of the 21st century", Jerusalem barely needs an introduction. The fairy tale for our times tells the story of 21st century Pied Piper Johnny "Rooster" Byron (played by Mark Rylance) and Ginger (played by Mackenzie Crook), on St George's Day. Johnny's a wanted man. Everyone wants him: the council wants him, Troy Whitworth wants him, a whole gaggle of waifs and strays want him (or his booze and drugs, anyway). We all want him. 

We'll all want this lot! It's an incredible contribution to the auction, and to theatre history: a unique, outstanding, 'there's-nothing-quite-like-it' lot that brings to life, so vividly, in such a three-dimensional way, one of the most loved, cherished and acclaimed plays of a generation. 

There are such brilliant, Aha! moments that explain the play's coming into being better than ever before: "I had written the play in the evenings in New York, after rushes [for a film he was making with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts]. I was getting no sleep. But I felt swept up in a wave, and although I was arriving in a rehearsal room with 25 people and an unfinished play, I felt unstoppable." 

The props alone (either glued in or sellotaped) make this a special object to behold: a fake tenner from the 2009 production; fake cocaine; the lighter from the famous giant scene ("Mark's idea - genius"), "stolen from the Royal Court set"; trivial pursuit cards; a vandalised sign. The playwright highlights a whole passage that journalists always quote ("It was never performed or spoken"); the poem Mark Rylance performed for him - which was the first time he'd ever seen Mark perform anything; the part of the play he considers to be the saddest "for me"; the 20-minute section he wrote in one night (but doesn't remember doing!); his favourite speech of the whole play.

This is a truly remarkable and almost priceless lot.