The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes

First published: 1969

First produced: 1968, at the Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham, England

Type of plot: Satire

Time of work: The late twentieth century

Locale: England

Principal Characters:

• Jack, the fourteenth earl of Gurney, an insane English nobleman
• Sir Charles Gurney, his uncle
• Lady Claire Gurney, Sir Charles’s wife
• Dinsdale Gurney, Jack’s dim-witted cousin
• Daniel Tucker, the family butler
• Dr. Paul Herder, a psychiatrist
• Grace Shelley, the mistress of Sir Charles and the wife of Jack

The Play

The Ruling Class begins with three sharp raps of a gavel. At a banqueting table, the thirteenth earl of Gurney offers a toast to England and to the ruling class. In a parody of John of Gaunt’s apostrophe to “this England” in Richard II (pr. c. 1595-1596), the earl eulogizes England’s class structure. While the British national anthem plays, the scene shifts to his lordship’s bedroom, where he is preparing to indulge in one of his diversions—hanging himself. Dressed in a three-cornered hat, a ballet skirt, long underwear, and a sword, he steps off a stool. After dangling for a few seconds, he regains his balance on the stool and delivers a soliloquy that betrays his madness. He tries it again but accidentally kicks over the stool. The thirteenth earl is dead.

Following this prologue, act 1 begins. After a funeral scene, the action moves to Gurney Manor. Sir Charles, Lady Claire, Dinsdale Gurney, and Bishop Lampton are discussing the disposal of the estate. Matthew Peake, a desiccated and deferential solicitor, enters and reads the will. Tucker, the butler, is left twenty thousand pounds; after a pause, he begins singing and dancing. Virtually everything else is left to the earl’s insane son, Jack. While the others shout angrily, Tucker reenters, smoking a cigar. He picks up a large vase, drops it (thereby getting everyone’s attention), and announces Jack, the fourteenth earl of Gurney.

The new earl is dressed as a monk and speaks softly and gently. He says that he has returned to take his proper place in the world. After asking that all pray with him, he declares himself to be the Son of Man, the God of Love, the Naz. In the next scene Dr. Herder, proprietor of a mental institution, tells Sir Charles that his nephew is a paranoid schizophrenic but not dangerous. Because his parents had “sent him away, alone, into a primitive community of licensed bullies and pederasts” (that is, public school), he has withdrawn from reality and become the Prince of Peace. He can speak only of love and of sharing with his fellow man.

Sir Charles is appalled. Not only is his nephew mad, but he is also a “Bolshie.” Moreover, he sleeps on a cross and refuses to answer to the name Jack—to any name of God, yes; but to Jack, no. Because the will stated that no contesting of it was permitted, however, nothing can be done—unless there were to be an heir. Since Jack believes himself to be married to the Lady of the Camellias, Sir Charles decides to use his mistress to play that part. Perhaps Grace can captivate Jack, marry him, and produce an heir. Then Sir Charles can have him committed. He will then be able to do as he wishes with the estate. Tucker tries to warn Jack, but Jack will not hear of it and leaves. Tucker, quite drunk, then states that he is the only true Englishman at Gurney Manor and that he is also a communist.

When Grace is introduced to Jack, he is immediately taken with her. The two are married by the bishop and retire to the nuptial chambers. The next morning Grace tells Sir Charles that although Jack is “wonky,” there was nothing wrong with his maleness. In the next scene Grace is nine months pregnant. Dr. Herder, who has learned of the plan, is determined to cure Jack by confronting him with another messiah. While Grace is having her baby (a boy), Dr. Herder challenges Jack with Mr. McKyle, a “High Voltage Messiah.” Jack retreats to his cross but is forced to come down and face McKyle. Overcome, he admits to being simply Jack. Act 1 ends on this note.

In the first scene of act 2, the potential fifteenth earl of Gurney is being christened. Sir Charles is ready to commit the fourteenth earl, but he is stopped by Dr. Herder, who declares Jack now to be stable. In several scenes Jack wrestles with his old personality and tries to force it into his subconscious. He is learning how to be cunning. Tested by Kelso Truscott, the Master of the Court of Protection, he is declared to be sane. In a frightening soliloquy Jack betrays the torment within him. He now believes that he is no longer the Messiah; instead, he has become God Almighty, the God of Justice. His distorted personality becomes the Moral Avenger of 1888, Jack the Ripper.

Jack and Grace are visited by two Tory ladies who wish him to speak to a party gathering. He learns that there is no death penalty in modern England. He and the ladies discuss the immoral times, and he suggests that the answer is to bring back fear, which will restore law and order. Jack breaks into song, a paraphrase of “Dry Bones.” In his version the bones are being broken on the rack, and the words have been transmuted from connected to disconnected bones.

Shortly thereafter, Lady Claire comes to Jack and attempts to seduce him. The scene shifts to the London of 1888. Jack, now the Avenging God, becomes the Keeper of Morals. He murders Claire with a knife. When the police investigate, Tucker is adjudged guilty, especially after he is discovered to be a communist. Clearly, Jack could not have done it. Before he is carried away, Tucker exclaims,

You Gurneys don’t draw the line at murder. (Suddenly exploding with rage and fear.) Upper-class excrement, you wanna’ do me dirt ’cause I know too much. I know one percent of the population owns half the property in England. That vomity “one per cent” needs kosher killing, hung up so the blue blood drains out slow and easy.

After this outburst Jack is lauded by the policemen as a model of noblesse oblige. Shortly afterward, Dr. Herder accosts Jack. The two verbally spar, then fence with walking sticks. Herder realizes that, although Jack has killed Claire, he is normal, according to his peers.

Jack is now ready to take his seat in the House of Lords. Sir Charles challenges him, but Jack wins. He is now the head of the Gurney clan, and Sir Charles is put out to pasture. Even Dinsdale supports Jack instead of his father. Following a quick scene of Jack enduring terrible internal turmoil, the scene shifts to the House of Lords. After his installation, Jack speaks to the lords of the need to restore order through fear and intimidation. Moldering corpses and bloated, goitered lords applaud his ideas for restoring “normalcy.” In the last scene, Jack is alone amid the dummies. Grace enters, singing of her love for him. He kisses her passionately. As the lights fade, he reaches into the pocket of his parliamentary robes. A scream of fear and agony is heard.

Dramatic Devices

The aim is to create, by means of soliloquy, rhetoric, formalized ritual, slapstick, songs and dances, a comic theatre of contrasting moods and opposites, where everything is simultaneously tragic and ridiculous. And we hope never to consent to the deadly servitude of naturalism or lose our hunger for true size, weight and texture.

The above statement by Peter Barnes appeared in the original program notes for The Ruling Class in 1968. Without question, Barnes meant what he wrote. The thematic devices he listed are certainly utilized to the fullest possible extent in his play. Barnes preferred using ludicrous or slapstick backdrops to enunciate his points, while using dialogue twists and shifts to keep the playgoer’s attention throughout. Indeed, the playgoer’s senses are visually and verbally assaulted so that, by the end of the play, a veritable collage of images has been implanted in the mind.

An example may be seen in the first five minutes of the play. The thirteenth earl of Gurney is something of an eccentric: After a hard day as a judge, he likes to indulge himself with a kinky diversion, hanging himself for a moment or two. In this first scene, the earl has shed his clothes down to his long underwear. After donning a sword and scabbard, a ballet tutu, and a three-cornered cocked hat, he slips his head into a noose, steps off a stool, dangles, then regains his footing. After this bizarre scene, the earl delivers a brief soliloquy about himself and his class. The lightning-quick imagery created by Barnes in this speech sets the tone for the whole play. After this speech is delivered, the earl reinserts his head into the noose, saying, “Just time for a quick one.” He then accidentally kicks over the stool, thus ending his life and setting the stage for the play itself. The scene, with its bizarre humor and farce, its outrageous props, actions, and rhetoric, serves to introduce the playgoer to the various messages of the play.

While Barnes is not able to maintain the pace set by the prologue over the course of the entire play, various images do stand out as effective and memorable. The fourteenth earl has a messianic complex and believes himself to be the representative of the God of Love. If he is to function in society, his peers consider that he must be cured. It simply will not do to have a peer of the realm literally hanging on a cross. In a confrontation with another “messiah,” the earl is “cured,” and he gives up his cross. He then, however, became a representative of the God of Justice and Retribution, who is acceptable to the Conservative House of Lords. Instead of Jack the Messiah, he becomes Jack the Ripper. This theme of retribution is followed with a scene late in act 2, set in the House of Lords. As the fourteenth earl speaks of the necessity of floggings and hangings, cobwebs, skeletons, and goitered freaks applaud his pronouncements.

Barnes utilizes dramatic devices liberally and with effect to create a memorable and entertaining satirical comedy. Familiar lines from William Shakespeare are quoted and misquoted; snatches of familiar songs, such as “Dry Bones,” are injected, although with slightly changed lyrics. Parody and slapstick are intertwined with invective. While the message is often acerbic, the play is never overpowered by the propaganda, in large measure because of the vivid images created by the stagecraft of the playwright.

Critical Context

The Ruling Class is but one of several plays by Peter Barnes that convey similar themes. The power of the ruling class, the abuse of authority, the lack of humanity and concern for the lower classes, and the role of God in the modern world are all concerns of the playwright. Barnes’s own background helped determine this attitude. He was born to a working-class East End (Cockney) family that operated an amusement stall at a seaside resort. As a child, he witnessed the Great Depression, World War II, and the struggles of the immediate postwar era. His first efforts at playwriting were social commentaries but were not successes. The Ruling Class was a major success, winning for him the John Whiting Award and the 1969 Most Promising Playwright Award. After that time he wrote numerous plays with similar themes, but none was as successful as this play.

While some detractors dismissed The Ruling Class as shallow, most critics agreed that it was an excellent play, consistently amusing and penetratingly satirical. Barnes was an admirer of Ben Jonson, the seventeenth century English satirist; The Ruling Class was definitely influenced by Jonson’s style. Theater critic Harold Hobson, in his preface to the published edition of the play (1969), deemed it one of the four most important theatrical events in British theater since 1945. He put The Ruling Class in the same category as Samuel Beckett’s En attendant Godot (pb. 1952; Waiting for Godot, 1954), John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (pr. 1956), and Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (pr. 1958). In sum, The Ruling Class is a rare combination of humor, satire, message, and style that remains fresh and enjoyable.

Sources for Further Study

Barnes, Philip, ed. “Peter Barnes.” In A Companion to Post-War British Theater. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1986.

Blumenfeld, Yorick. “The London Show.” Atlantic 224 (August, 1969): 99-101.

Bull, John. “Peter Barnes.” In Contemporary Dramatists. 6th ed. Detroit: St. James, 1999.

Dukore, Bernard F. Barnestorm: The Plays of Peter Barnes. New York: Garland, 1995.

Dukore, Bernard F. The Theatre of Peter Barnes. Exeter, N.H.: Heinemann, 1981.

Inveso, Marybeth. The Gothic Impulse. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Kalem, T. E. “The Hangman God.” Time, February 15, 1971, 60-61.