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.[4] During this period he worked as a film critic, story editor, and a screenwriter.[5] He achieved critical and box-office success with his baroque comedy The Ruling Class (1968), which debuted at the Nottingham Playhouse.[6] The play was notorious for its anti-naturalistic approach, unusual in theatre at the time.[7] Critic Harold Hobson deemed it to be one of the best first plays of its generation.[4] 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.[8]
Later plays
Following his initial success, Barnes wrote a series of plays offering apocalyptic visions of various periods in history:
The Bewitched (1974), 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.[10]
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.[11] It was for this play that Barnes won his Olivier award.[12]
Barnes continued writing historical comedies throughout the 1990s. These include Sunsets and Glories (1990), Dreaming (1999) which transferred to London's West End, and Jubilee (2001).[17][4] He was the Royal Shakespeare Company's most produced living playwright at the time.[18]
The last play that Barnes completed was Babies, which is based on his experiences as an elderly father.[3] His second wife gave birth to a daughter when he was 69, followed by triplets a year later.[19]
John Irvin directed his The Moon and the Stars with Alfred Molina about the film business in 1930s' Rome.[20] A revival of his Noonday Demons was produced by renowned theatre designer John Napier.[21] 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.[1] His second wife, Christie, gave birth to his first daughter Leela in 2000 when he was 69.[8] 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.[22] This time Christie gave birth to triplets Abigail, Nathaniel and Zachary.[4] Barnes died of a stroke on 1 July 2004.[19]
Works
Theatre plays
The Time of the Barracudas, Curran Theatre, San Francisco, 1963
Lulu: A Sex Tragedy (adaptation of Frank Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box), produced at Nottingham Playhouse / Royal Court Theatre, London, 1970
The Alchemist (adaptation of a play by Ben Jonson), produced at Old Vic Theatre, 1970
The Devil Is an Ass (adaptation of a play by Ben Jonson), produced at Nottingham Playhouse, 1973 revised version, Edinburgh Festival, 1976 then National Theatre, London, 1977
For All Those Who Get Despondent (cabaret; based on works by Bertolt Brecht and Frank Wedekind), produced at Theatre Upstairs, 1976
The Frontiers of Farce (adaptation of the plays The Purging by Georges Feydeau and The Singer by Frank Wedekind), produced at Old Vic Theatre, 1976
Bartholomew Fair (based on the play by Ben Jonson), produced at Round House Theatre, 1978 then London, 1987
Antonio (based on John Marston's plays Antonio' and Mellida and Antonio's Revenge), produced at Nottingham Playhouse, 1979
Chaste Maid in Cheapside (radio adaptation of a play by Thomas Middleton), BBC, 1979
The Two Hangmen (radio adaptation of Barnes's stage play For All Those Who Get Despondent), 1979
Eulogy on Baldness (radio adaptation of a work by Synesius of Cyrene), BBC, 1980
The Devil Himself (revue; adaptation of works by Frank Wedekind), music by Carl Davis and Stephen Deutsch, produced at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, 1980
The Atheist (radio adaptation of play by Thomas Otway), BBC, 1981
The Singer (radio adaptation of work by Frank Wedekind), 1981
The Soldier's Fortune (radio adaptation of a play by Thomas Otway), BBC, 1981
The Dutch Courtesan (radio adaptation of play by John Marston), BBC, 1982
The Magician, radio adaptation of work by Maxim Gorky, 1982
A Mad World, My Masters (radio adaptation of a play by Thomas Middleton), 1983
The Primrose Path (radio adaptation of a play by Georges Feydeau), 1984
A Trick to Catch the Old One (radio adaptation of a play by Thomas Middleton), 1985
Scenes from a Marriage (based on the play by Georges Feydeau), produced at Barbican Theatre, London, 1986
The Old Law (radio adaptation of a play by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley and Philip Massinger), 1986
Woman of Paris (radio adaptation of work by Henri Becque), 1986
Don Juan and Faust (radio adaptation of by C. D. Grabbe), 1987
The Magnetic Lady (radio adaptation of a play by Ben Jonson), 1987
Tango at the End of Winter (based on a play by Kunio Shimizu), produced in London, 1991
Hard Times (television adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens), BBC, 1994
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