Peter Barnes

Outlines a plan to upgrade capitalism that takes into account the costs and benefits of free-market practices, addressing system flaws that result in higher consumer costs and limited profits while making recommendations involving new legal entities and more responsible uses of markets and property rights.

In "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), Ernest Lubitsch brought his legendary comic touch to the most unpromising situation: life in Nazi-occupied Poland. In this study, Peter Barnes considers what it is to make comedy out of tragedy.

An RSC commission to commemorate the first celebration of Shakespeare's life and works A mischievous satire on the foundation of the Shakespeare industry: In 1769, when David Garrick staged the first theatre festival to celebrate the life of Stratford's most famous son, little did he realise the impact it would have on the future livelihood of the small Warwickshire market town. Peter Barnes' ironic and irreverent new comedy dissects the cult of the theatrical personality, with guest appearances from the Bard himself, Ben Jonson, David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Peter Hall and Peter Barnes."Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)

This book provides an up-to-date perspective on the inflammatory cells, mediators, and molecular pathology of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphasizing the urgent need to clearly understand the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in COPD.

A haunting and brutally funny story of heroism and human values In the bloody aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, Captain John Mallory leads a band of renegades across a war-torn landscape on a breathtaking quest in search of a dream - a dream of home. Dreaming premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre in March 1999 before moving to the West End."Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)

This collection of Peter Barnes' plays comprises three duologues and one three-hander dealing with "the absurdly tragic and the tragically absurd". In "Humour Helps" an actres hamfistedly tries to commit suicide, finally achieving her aim with the unwitting aid of a neighbour. "Waiting for a Bus" has a pair of lovers interrupted in bed by the arrival of the husband - or are they actors rehearsing a new comedy "Waiting for a bus" about a pair of lovers disturbed by the husband's arrival? "Acting Exercise" opens with Rowan, an actor delivering a soliloquy in a rehearsal room. From the shadows emerges a distraught husband demanding the actor give him back his wife. In "Last Things" an elderly couple of thespians awake to find themselves dead. They decide to go on to the next world with their famous husband and wife sketch - to the applause of the heavenly host.

A selection of plays by "one of the most original and biting comic writers working in Britain" (The Times) Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie is a riotous, scabrous comedy concerning a demonic figure, a destroyer and giver of life, who is always trying to jump, with both feet into his left trouser leg. Heaven's Blessings, taken from the grim pages of the Bible is a charming epic comedy of Tobit, his wife, their son and a cantankerous guardian angel, who set out to reclaim an outstanding IOU, overcoming many dangers which test their faith to breaking point. Revolutionary Witness, about the French Revolution, is a series of four monologues televised by the BBC in 1989."Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)

A selection of plays by "one of the most original and biting comic writers working in Britain" (The Times) The Spirit of Man is "an ingenious triple-bill exploring Man's need for faith through three short satires based in medieval France, Protectorate England and nineteenth-century Eastern Europe" (Independent); Nobody Here But Us Chickens is a linked trilogy of satires on New Age, corporate and bedroom politics. Red Noses is a political satire about the plague and takes place in 1348. Set in medieval Italy during a crisis in the Church, Sunsets and Glories is "a work of the highest and most thrilling theatrical energy" (Independent on Sunday), whilst Bye Bye Columbus is a "highly entertaining" (Guardian) television play."Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)

Set in medieval Italy during a crisis in the Church, Sunsets and Glories is "a work of the highest and most thrilling theatrical energy" (Independent on Sunday) Sunsets and Glories is set in the late thirteenth-century Italy where power struggles between Church and State inspire such characters as the spineless Charles 11, paid killer Montefelto and 'madwoman' Maifreda. Into this maelstrom steps Peter de Morrone, the saintly Pope Celestine V, provoking a bitter crisis of faith in the abiding values of violence and corruption. Once again, Peter Barnes' mordant wit takes history and imbues it with a savage humour."Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)

A selection of plays by "one of the most original and biting comic writers working in Britain" (The Times) The Ruling Class "is a scorching and savage tragedy, yet its jokes are innumerable...they throw wide open the windows of your mind, they enlarge your field of vision and they blow away the accumulated dust of ages" (Sunday Times); Leonardo's Last Supper and Noonday Demons are "two ironic plays of delusion...Peter Barnes' dialogue is rich in surprising verbal twists, intellectual allusions and splendid jokes". The Bewitched is "a feast for intellectuals as well as a rollicking example of folk theatre" (Plays and Players) while Laughter is a vicious satire on comedy itself and Barnes' People are eight monologues written for some of the great stars of the English stage which "let the listener into a whole and private world...their jokes in the face of existence were both burning and bitter." (Daily Telegraph)"Peter Barnes is one of the unrecognised geniuses of the English theatre" (Plays and Players)