Red Noses
Barnes, Peter
Genre: Play
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Annotated by:
- Willms, Janice
- Date of entry: May-02-2006
Summary
France, 1348: the Black Death rages and the playwright takes his reader into the midst of the cynicism, racism, panic, and religious fervor that characterize human response to catastrophic events that they don’t fully understand. The characters are caricatures of social types whose actions were apparent during the medieval plagues: religious figures, flagellants, grave robbers, well-poisoners, finger-pointers. The message sent by the words and actions of these characters is a satire on human behavior--the best and the worst as they are wont to surface during an epidemic. Many of the lines are very funny, but the humor is dark.
Publisher
Faber & Faber
Place Published
London
Edition
1985
Page Count
109
Commentary