Peter Barnes (playwright)


Peter Barnes was an English Olivier Award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His best known work is the play The Ruling Class, which was made into a 1972 film for which Peter O'Toole received an Oscar nomination.

Biography

Early career

Barnes was educated at Marling School in Stroud, Gloucestershire and performed his national service with the Royal Air Force. He then worked briefly for London County Council.
Bored with his job, Barnes took a correspondence course in theology and began to visit the British Museum Reading Room, which he used as an office on a daily basis. During this period he worked as a film critic, story editor, and a screenwriter. He achieved critical and box-office success with his baroque comedy The Ruling Class, which debuted at the Nottingham Playhouse. The play was notorious for its anti-naturalistic approach, unusual in theatre at the time. Critic Harold Hobson deemed it to be one of the best first plays of its generation. Following a successful three-month run in the West End, Barnes adapted the play for the 1972 film of the same name, which featured a highly acclaimed performance by Peter O'Toole.

Later plays

Following his initial success, Barnes wrote a series of plays offering apocalyptic visions of various periods in history:Leonardo's Last Supper portrayed Leonardo da Vinci as prematurely declared dead, with his subsequent "resurrection" in a filthy charnel-house.The Bewitched, which he produced with the Royal Shakespeare Company, showed the Spanish state attempting to produce an heir for Carlos II, whom Barnes portrayed as being an impotent imbecile.Laughter! was his most controversial work, a double-bill that jumped from the reign of Ivan the Terrible to a satire based on the tedious bureaucracy required to sustain Auschwitz concentration camp.Red Noses depicts a sprightly priest, originally played by Antony Sher, who travelled around the plague-affected villages of 14th-century France with a band of fools, known as God's Zanies, offering holy assistance. It was for this play that Barnes won his Olivier award.

Later life

In his later years Barnes turned his attention more in the direction of films, radio, and television. His screenplay for Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April earned him a nomination for the best adapted screenplay Oscar in 1992. He also wrote several hugely successful mini-series for U.S. television, including Arabian Nights, Merlin and Noah's Ark. For BBC Radio 3 he wrote a series of monologues entitled Barnes's People, for which he attracted a large number of well known actors: Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen. His television miniseries for ABC and NBC were the most popular of the day with record audiences.
Barnes continued writing historical comedies throughout the 1990s. These include Sunsets and Glories, Dreaming which transferred to London's West End, and Jubilee. He was the Royal Shakespeare Company's most produced living playwright at the time.
The last play that Barnes completed was Babies, which is based on his experiences as an elderly father. His second wife gave birth to a daughter when he was 69, followed by triplets a year later.
John Irvin directed his The Moon and the Stars with Alfred Molina about the film business in 1930s' Rome. A revival of his Noonday Demons was produced by renowned theatre designer John Napier. Barnes television miniseries are shown yearly as holiday favourites.

Personal life

Barnes, who had two sons and two daughters, married twice – in 1958 to Charlotte Beck and in 1995 to Christie Horn. His second wife, Christie, gave birth to his first daughter Leela in 2000 when he was 69. Leela is a writer, following in her father's footsteps. Barnes, who received much American mainstream media attention for his movies and US television miniseries in later life, quickly became a tabloid obsession in 2002 when he became a father again at the age of 71. This time Christie gave birth to triplets Abigail, Nathaniel and Zachary. Barnes died of a stroke on 1 July 2004.

Works

Theatre plays

The Time of the Barracudas, Curran Theatre, San Francisco, 1963Sclerosis, Aldwych Theatre, 1965The Ruling Class, Nottingham/Piccadilly Theatre, 1968Leonardo’s Last Supper, Open Space, 1969Noonday Demons, Open Space, 1969The Bewitched, RSC at the Aldwych Theatre, 1974Laughter!, Royal Court, 1978Somersaults, Leicester, 1981 Red Noses, RSC, 1985Sunsets And Glories, Yorkshire Playhouse, 1990Luna Park Eclipses, National Theatre Studio, 1995Corpsing, Tristan Bates Theatre, 1996Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie, Heaven’s Blessings, Florida State University, 1997Dreaming, Royal, Exchange & Queen’s Theatre, 1999Jubilee, RSC, 2001

Original works for radio

My Ben Jonson, 1973Barnes' People : Seven Monologues, 1981Barnes' People II: Seven Duologues, 1984Barnes People III: Eight Trialogues, 1986No End to Dreaming, 1987More Barnes' People, 1990

Original screenplays

Violent Moment Breakout The White Trap The Professionals The Devil Inside Ring of Spies Not with My Wife, You Don't!

Original teleplays

Checkmate With Suicidal Intent Who Is Gustav Varnia? The Man with a Feather in His Hat Breakout Nobody Here but Us Chickens: Nobody Here but Us Chickens, More than a Touch of Zen, Not as Bad as They Seem Revolutionary Witness: The Patriot, The Preacher, The Butcher, The Amazon 1989The Spirit of Man Bye Bye Columbus Merlin : two episodes

Adaptations for stage, screen and radio

Lulu: A Sex Tragedy, produced at Nottingham Playhouse / Royal Court Theatre, London, 1970The Alchemist, produced at Old Vic Theatre, 1970The Devil Is an Ass, produced at Nottingham Playhouse, 1973 revised version, Edinburgh Festival, 1976 then National Theatre, London, 1977For All Those Who Get Despondent, produced at Theatre Upstairs, 1976The Frontiers of Farce, produced at Old Vic Theatre, 1976Bartholomew Fair, produced at Round House Theatre, 1978 then London, 1987Antonio, produced at Nottingham Playhouse, 1979Chaste Maid in Cheapside, BBC, 1979The Two Hangmen, 1979Eulogy on Baldness, BBC, 1980The Devil Himself, music by Carl Davis and Stephen Deutsch, produced at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, 1980The Atheist, BBC, 1981The Singer, 1981The Soldier's Fortune, BBC, 1981The Dutch Courtesan, BBC, 1982The Magician,, 1982A Mad World, My Masters, 1983The Primrose Path, 1984Il Candelaio/ The Candlemaker, produced at Barbican Theatre, London, 1985A Trick to Catch the Old One, 1985Scenes from a Marriage, produced at Barbican Theatre, London, 1986The Old Law, 1986Woman of Paris, 1986Don Juan and Faust, 1987The Magnetic Lady, 1987Tango at the End of Winter, produced in London, 1991Hard Times, BBC, 1994Enchanted April, Miramax, 1992Voices, 1995Noah's Ark Hallmark, 1999A Christmas Carol Hallmark, 1999Alice in Wonderland Hallmark, 1999Arabian Nights Hallmark, 2000

Selected filmography