Neil Bowen on
David Ian Rabey
The Theatre and Films of Jez Butterworth
Moral Panic vs. the folk devil
Costume used to create a sense of Johnny as a gunfighter, prepared for the ‘final, fatal showdown’
Johnny is able to undermine the moral authoriy of Fawcett, her moral probity, because he knows about her affair - sense of Johnny as supernaturally all-seeing
Parsons deleting from the recording undermines his authority
The state is ‘morally licenced’ and ‘armed’
Johnny undermines this licence by suggesting that corruption and vested commercial interests are the real reasons why the council wants to evict him.
Johnny’s playfulness is itself subversive, a refusal to abide by the values of mainstream society, to take things seriously
Johnny assumes the power of the folk-devil
His defiance recalls both King Lear and Coriolanus.