The Hills of California (NHB Modern Plays) - The new play from the award-winning writer of the West End and Broadway hits Jerusalem and The Ferryman - Softcover

Butterworth, Jez

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1839043156 ISBN 13: 9781839043154

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2024

Synopsis

'This house. It’s called “Sea View”. It’s just I’ve looked out of every window, and you can’t. You can’t see the sea.’

Blackpool, 1976. The driest summer in two hundred years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving. In the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother’s run-down guest house, as she lies dying upstairs.

The Hills of California was first performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End in 2024, directed by Sam Mendes, and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Neal Street.

Jez Butterworth’s plays include Mojo, The Night Heron, The Winterling, Jerusalem, The River and The Ferryman. They have been seen at the Royal Court, in the West End, on Broadway, and won numerous awards, including Best Play at the Olivier and Tony Awards.

About this title

About the Author

Jez Butterworth was born in London in 1969 and studied English at St John’s College, Cambridge.

His first play, Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, 1995), won seven major awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Other plays include The Night Heron (2002), The Winterling (2006), Parlour Song (2008), Jerusalem (2009), The River (2012) and The Ferryman (2017).

Jerusalem transferred from the Royal Court to the West End, breaking box-office records for a new play. It won Best Play at the Evening Standard Awards 2010, the UK Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play 2010, before travelling to Broadway where it won Best Foreign Play, at the New York Critics’ Circle Awards 2011. It received six Tony nominations, winning two, including Best Actor for Mark Rylance. The River transferred to Broadway in 2014, starring Hugh Jackman.

His sixth play for the Royal Court, The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes, was extended during its transfer to the West End. It received fifteen five-star reviews in the UK daily press and won Best Play and Best Director at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2017, the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, and three Olivier Awards for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actress in 2018. In 2018, The Ferryman transferred to Broadway and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning four including the award for Best Play 2019.

Jez’s screenwriting credits include Fair Game (2010) directed by Doug Liman and starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, Get On Up (2014) directed by Tate Taylor and starring Chadwick Boseman and Octavia Spencer, Edge of Tomorrow (2014) directed by Doug Liman and starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, Black Mass (2015) directed by Scott Cooper and starring Johnny Depp and Dakota Johnson, Spectre (2015) directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig and Naomie Harris, Ford v Ferrari (2019) directed by James Mangold and starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) directed by James Mangold and starring Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

For TV, Jez has created and written the comedy series Mammals for Amazon Studios starring James Corden, Sally Hawkins, Melia Kreiling and Colin Morgan. Jez also created the historical fantasy drama Britannia which was the first co-production between Sky and Amazon Prime. It stars David Morrissey, Zoë Wanamaker and Mackenzie Crook and ran for three seasons.

In 2007, Jez won the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1839043156
• ISBN 13: 9781839043154
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144