{"id":993,"date":"2017-09-06T10:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T10:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/?page_id=993"},"modified":"2018-12-11T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T11:45:03","slug":"barnes-peter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/?page_id=993","title":{"rendered":"Barnes, Peter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Peter Barnes was a playwright, screenwriter, and director. He was born in 1931 in London to Jewish parents and educated in Gloucestershire. After his national service in the Royal Air Force, Barnes took a course in theology and worked as a film critic, a story editor, and a screenwriter before gaining footing in the theatre.<\/p>\n

Barnes’ comedy\u00a0The Ruling Class\u00a0<\/i> (1968)\u00a0opened\u00a0at Nottingham Playhouse and then\u00a0transferred to\u00a0the West End. In 1972, the play was\u00a0adapted for screen\u00a0starring Peter O\u2019Toole. Barnes wrote many plays about historical events with an apocalyptic twist\u00a0such as\u00a0The Bewitched<\/i> (1974)\u00a0which was\u00a0produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company\u00a0and deals with\u00a0the efforts of the Spanish state to secure an heir for\u00a0Carlos II.\u00a0Barnes\u2019\u00a0most\u00a0controversial play\u00a0Laughter!<\/i> (1978) begins with the injustice of Ivan the Terrible and then moves onto Auschwitz and the bureaucracy\u00a0involved in\u00a0running\u00a0the camp.\u00a0For\u00a0Red Noses\u00a0<\/i>(1985),\u00a0which tells\u00a0the story of a priest\u00a0(originally played by Anthony Sher)\u00a0and his journey around\u00a014th-century\u00a0French villages affected by the plague,\u00a0Barnes received a Laurence\u00a0Olivier Award.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s,\u00a0Barnes\u00a0not only continued to write historical comedies such as\u00a0Sunsets and Glories\u00a0<\/i>(1990),\u00a0Dreaming<\/i>\u00a0(1999), and\u00a0Jubilee<\/i>\u00a0(2001),\u00a0but\u00a0also\u00a0worked for\u00a0television and\u00a0film. His\u00a0screenplay of Elizabeth von Arnim\u2019s\u00a0The Enchanted April<\/i> (1992) was nominated for\u00a0an Academy Award\u00a0for\u00a0Best Adapted\u00a0Screenplay.<\/p>\n

Peter Barnes died in 2004.<\/p>\n

Plays<\/p>\n

—. Plays: 1:\u00a0<\/i>The Ruling Class; Leonardo’s Last Supper; Noonday Demons; The Bewitched; Laughter!; Barnes’ People: Eight Monologues<\/em>. London: Methuen Drama, 1989.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

—. Plays: 2:<\/i>\u00a0Red Noses; The Spirit of Man; Nobody Here But Us Chickens; Sunsets and Glories; Bye Bye Columbus<\/span><\/em><\/i>. London: Methuen Drama, 2013.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

—.\u00a0Plays: 3:\u00a0<\/i>Clap Hands; Heaven’s Blessings; Revolutionary Witness<\/span><\/em><\/i>. London: Methuen Drama, 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

—. Dreaming<\/i>. London: Methuen Drama, 2014.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

—. Jubilee<\/i>. London: Methuen Drama, 2014.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Barnes was a playwright, screenwriter, and director. He was born in 1931 in London to Jewish parents and educated in Gloucestershire. After his national service in the Royal Air Force, Barnes took a course in theology and worked as a film critic, a story editor, and a screenwriter before gaining footing in the theatre. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":561,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-993","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993\/revisions\/1838"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishjewishtheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}