The Theatre of Peter Barnes by Bernard F. Dukore (review)

316 Book Reviews BERNARD F. DUKORE, The Theatre of Peter Barnes. London and Exeter, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books 1981. Pp. 158. Some of the claims made by Bernard Dukore in this first book-length study of Barnes's theatre to appear in print may raise a few eyebrows. Dukore ranks Barnes with Pinter as Britain's foremost contemporary dramatists: "In terms of originality, distinctiveness, theatrical vitality, and intellectual power," Dukore asserts, "they tower above all other contemporary English dramatists." This is a bold claim to make about an author whose plays have not been seen on Broadway (unlike Pinter); who may be known to North American audiences only through the movie version of The Ruling Class (1972), starring Peter O'Toole; and who is regarded as a controversial figure in theatrical circles in England. This study is designed to lead one to read or reread Barnes, and to demonstrate that he is "one of the major figures of contemporary drama." Professor Dukare, long a champion of avant-garde writers, provides ample evidence to support his claims, and this book should stimulate academic interest in the Barnes canon. Evidently Heinemann Educational share Dukore's view, as they have published Volume One of the Collected Plays of Peter Barnes to coincide with the distribution of Dukore's book. Dukore's study is not, however, a comparative one; rather, he condenses a great deal of information into 150 pages of text in a fairly comprehensive overview of Barnes's contribution to the theatre, including his published plays (The Ruling Class [1968]; Leonardo's Last Supper and Noonday Demons [1969]; The Bewitched [1974]; and Laughter! [1978]); his unpublished plays; his adaptations of Wedekind, Brecht, Feydeau; and his adaptation and directing of Jacobean plays, including Ben 10nson's Alchemist, The Devil is an Ass, and Bartholomew Fair, John Marston's Antonio plays, and Jonson, Chapman and Marston's Eastward Ho! Dukore includes sections on Barnes's adaptations and special programs for BBC Radio 3, including "Barnes's People," seven original monologues broadcast in October, 1981, and a television play, The Man with a Feather in His Hat. The section devoted to Barnes's six major plays is only thirty-three pages long, and is restricted largely to detailed summaries. This is a pity, but perhaps it was the wisest course to follow, since the works are incredibly complex and almost Joycean in the density of their allusions and stage business. By way of compensation, one suspects, the chapter on Barnes's theatrical style includes an intelligent, clear and well-illustrated discussion of his special. "wrought" language effects and his theatrical devices: aspects of Barnes's theatre that mark him as unique. The playwright claims he was seeking "a live theatrical language which had the feel of a historical period," and so he "pil_ laged; everything from EHzabethan argot to the Bible," in creating a vivid, stylized, "carefully constructed new language" capable of incorporating modern slang, jokes and neologisms. Dukore cites as examples of these lastmentioned effects the mad Earl of The Ruling Class saying. '''Must get my gronch thoughts in order,' ... the adjective suggestive of crunching grunts." Dukore maintains that "Such words and phrases as 'rabbit suckers' ... 'Bussbeggar ' ... and 'Hairless pig-gelders' ... connote archaic expletives, but they mean nothing (is it possible, for example, for one to suck rabbits?)." Actually, Book Reviews 317 two of these examples were "pillaged" from Frances Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796), a repository of colorful thieves' cant to which Barnes returns frequently for bright baubles. Grose explains "rabbit suckers" as "Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices"; "buss beggar" as "An old superannuated fumbler, whom none but beggars will suffer to kiss them." In dealing with Barnes's llse of parody and popular culture, including American musicals, songs and dance, and movies, Dukare is most infonnative , winkling out the parodic echoes, satirical inferences and nuances, and sources that sometimes Barnes himself had forgotten. Dukare also discusses the major theatrical influences on Barnes's style: expressionism; Artaudian and Brechtian devices; and English Renaissance - especially Jonsonian drama . These influences help create a powerful blend of visual and verbal intensity, savage wit and bitter satire...