Mature Works
Following his initial success, Barnes wrote a series of plays offering apocalyptic visions of various periods in history:
- Leonardo's Last Supper (1969) portrayed Leonardo da Vinci being prematurely declared dead, with his subsequent "resurrection" in a filthy charnel-house.
- The Bewitched (1974), which he produced with the RSC, showed the Spanish state attempting to produce an heir for Carlos II, whom Barnes portrayed as being impotent and imbecile.
- Laughter! (1978) 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.
- Red Noses (1985) 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.
Read more about this topic: Peter Barnes (playwright)
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—Peter De Vries (20th century)
“Now they express
All that’s content to wear a worn-out coat,
All actions done in patient hopelessness,
All that ignores the silences of death,
Thinking no further than the hand can hold,
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Yet works on uselessly with shortened breath.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)