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Forms of Heaven: Three Plays by Clive Barker
Includes the titles, "Crazyface", in which a clown lands in Europe's dark ages; "Paradise Street," in which Liverpool is transformed by time-travelers; and "Subtle Bodies," a play about the Sea of Dreams.
378 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
3 people are currently reading
471 people want to read
About the author
Clive Barker
706 books15.2k followersClive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.
In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.
Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.
Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.
Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.
Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.
A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid,
In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.
Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.
Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.
Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.
Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.
A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid,
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 14, 2021
These aren't as visceral as Barker's first book of plays, Incarnations, but they show his range not only as a stylist, but as a storyteller in general.
In these three plays, Barker does something that is hard for any writer to pull off: he pulls no punches but also leaves much the reader's imagination. Some of that is due to the playscript format. A reader (or director and actor) has to fill in the gaps. It's part of the fun of reading a play. But when he needs to, especially in the motives on display in "Crazyface," Barker hits you right in the guts.
I can see many people, even fans of Barker's, avoiding his plays because they aren't familiar with reading plays. That should not be a barrier.
In these three plays, Barker does something that is hard for any writer to pull off: he pulls no punches but also leaves much the reader's imagination. Some of that is due to the playscript format. A reader (or director and actor) has to fill in the gaps. It's part of the fun of reading a play. But when he needs to, especially in the motives on display in "Crazyface," Barker hits you right in the guts.
I can see many people, even fans of Barker's, avoiding his plays because they aren't familiar with reading plays. That should not be a barrier.
April 24, 2020
Taken in concert with Incarnations – Barker’s other play collection – this provides a nice cross-section of the author’s work. Unfortunately for this volume, it showcases not the edgy violence of the playwright’s early career but the outré goofiness that characterizes much of his later work. This trilogy includes plays about Til Eulenspiegel, Queen Elizabeth I (dropped down in the middle of modern Liverpool) and Edward Lear. The works are entertaining enough, but in general I preferred the entries in his first collection.
December 16, 2024
Clive Barker has a wild imagination and shows it in these 3 plays. Based on his intro for each of the plays you get a real sense of the settings. I think these plays would be best suited for smaller venues to capture the experience. I thoroughly enjoyed each of these plays. Recommended if you are looking for a little something different to read.
July 17, 2012
Before he was the wunderkind of the horror genre in the 1980s, Clive Barker had spent many years working in theatre. In 1995 and 1996, he published two collections showcasing some of the results of that time in the books INCARNATIONS and FORMS OF HEAVEN respectively. I don’t believe either collection fared well and both have since gone out of print. But if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon copies of either, I recommend snatching them before someone else does.
While Barker calls the plays in his first collection “troubled dramas” he’s equally specific about the genre of this second collection: “[T]hese pieces are all comedies, which--despite the range of their settings and casts--have this essential quality in common: they explore and celebrate the strange territory that lies between the world of our imaginations and the world in which we live our daily lives.”
When I first read that, I was hesitant; what’s “the future of horror” doing writing comedies? And considering the usually horrific nature of his work, can he even be funny? I’d certainly never seen evidence of it.
Yet, he managed it. Granted, the plays in this collection aren’t what one would consider gut-busters by any means, but they’re certainly not horror stories, and they do take advantage of their unique situations to gain some chuckles. Barker’s plays aren’t comedies in the laugh out loud sense, but humor definitely permeates every scene.
In “Crazyface”, Tyl Eulenspiegal is handed a mysterious box by one of three conspirators, sending him away from his family if he wants to survive. Through circumstance he finds himself wed to a woman he’s never met and the brother he’d believed dead is at the reception, desperate to kill Tyl and bring the mysterious box back to its rightful owners. Oh, and Tyl also has an angel that follows him around, haranguing him for his coat.
In “Paradise Street”, Shay Bonner is home on leave only to find nearly every building on his street, save the one his brother and sister-in-law live in, has been flattened. This one starts out seemingly grim, with lots of character development and interaction until Queen Elizabeth appears on the scene, having traveled through time to witness events and get tested for the pox.
Finally, “Subtle Bodies” wraps up the book. Dexter Juffs and Carys Skinner have run away to a seaside B&B the day before they were to be married. Dexter feels he can’t be a proper husband to Carys due to his sexual preferences, which don’t always run the straight and narrow--as his best man and friend Robert can attest. But before Dexter can make his confession, both their families show up, intent on seeing this wedding through, unaware of the reason for the couple’s departure. All seems okay in this play until a poet named Edward Lear, who’s staying at the Inn under the name Mr. Foss, starts dabbling in the dream worlds of the guests.
Of the three plays, “Subtle Bodies” seemed the most complicated and the most complex, but also the most well-rounded in terms of bringing everything to a satisfactory close, and tying it all together under a strong, cohesive theme.
I can’t help but compare the plays in this collection with those in the previous one, and for me INCARNATION is just a better book. The plays there were much darker, more well-written, whereas those in FORMS OF HEAVEN have a . . . purposeful feel to them. They don’t feel as natural as those in INCARNATIONS, almost a work-for-hire air, structured, manufactured almost. That doesn’t take away from the pleasure of reading them, however.
From a production standpoint, the three plays seem very difficult. Barker even says so in his notes. But I think that just makes me all the more curious to see them performed. As reading material, plays with a lot of characters tend to get confusing and after a while, you’re not reading dialogue, or conversations, you’re just reading the words the playwright put down, but without that clear image in your head of who is talking when, you tend to lose focus of the piece as a story. At least I do. And with 67 characters collectively (32, 14 and 21 respectively), it’s very easy to lose the sense of any conversations taking place.
If I didn’t know it beforehand, I don’t know that I’d peg these as Clive Barker works. They have their fantastique elements, for sure, but they also seem very tame in comparison to his later work. I could see these plays having influenced the Barker that came after, but I don’t know I’d see them as Barker’s own work, even early work.
I’m really trying to be impartial here and review FORMS OF HEAVEN without the shadow of INCARNATIONS having over it, but I don’t know if that’s possible. There are only 2 books of Clive Barker’s theatre work in print--or previously in print--so the two just seem so connected in my mind, feeding off of and serving as reflections of each other. Of the two, INCARNATIONS is the more enjoyable collection, but the work in FORMS OF HEAVEN feels so much more complete and developed. In the end, I recommend both. I mean, they’re Clive Barker. That should have been all I had to say in the beginning.
While Barker calls the plays in his first collection “troubled dramas” he’s equally specific about the genre of this second collection: “[T]hese pieces are all comedies, which--despite the range of their settings and casts--have this essential quality in common: they explore and celebrate the strange territory that lies between the world of our imaginations and the world in which we live our daily lives.”
When I first read that, I was hesitant; what’s “the future of horror” doing writing comedies? And considering the usually horrific nature of his work, can he even be funny? I’d certainly never seen evidence of it.
Yet, he managed it. Granted, the plays in this collection aren’t what one would consider gut-busters by any means, but they’re certainly not horror stories, and they do take advantage of their unique situations to gain some chuckles. Barker’s plays aren’t comedies in the laugh out loud sense, but humor definitely permeates every scene.
In “Crazyface”, Tyl Eulenspiegal is handed a mysterious box by one of three conspirators, sending him away from his family if he wants to survive. Through circumstance he finds himself wed to a woman he’s never met and the brother he’d believed dead is at the reception, desperate to kill Tyl and bring the mysterious box back to its rightful owners. Oh, and Tyl also has an angel that follows him around, haranguing him for his coat.
In “Paradise Street”, Shay Bonner is home on leave only to find nearly every building on his street, save the one his brother and sister-in-law live in, has been flattened. This one starts out seemingly grim, with lots of character development and interaction until Queen Elizabeth appears on the scene, having traveled through time to witness events and get tested for the pox.
Finally, “Subtle Bodies” wraps up the book. Dexter Juffs and Carys Skinner have run away to a seaside B&B the day before they were to be married. Dexter feels he can’t be a proper husband to Carys due to his sexual preferences, which don’t always run the straight and narrow--as his best man and friend Robert can attest. But before Dexter can make his confession, both their families show up, intent on seeing this wedding through, unaware of the reason for the couple’s departure. All seems okay in this play until a poet named Edward Lear, who’s staying at the Inn under the name Mr. Foss, starts dabbling in the dream worlds of the guests.
Of the three plays, “Subtle Bodies” seemed the most complicated and the most complex, but also the most well-rounded in terms of bringing everything to a satisfactory close, and tying it all together under a strong, cohesive theme.
I can’t help but compare the plays in this collection with those in the previous one, and for me INCARNATION is just a better book. The plays there were much darker, more well-written, whereas those in FORMS OF HEAVEN have a . . . purposeful feel to them. They don’t feel as natural as those in INCARNATIONS, almost a work-for-hire air, structured, manufactured almost. That doesn’t take away from the pleasure of reading them, however.
From a production standpoint, the three plays seem very difficult. Barker even says so in his notes. But I think that just makes me all the more curious to see them performed. As reading material, plays with a lot of characters tend to get confusing and after a while, you’re not reading dialogue, or conversations, you’re just reading the words the playwright put down, but without that clear image in your head of who is talking when, you tend to lose focus of the piece as a story. At least I do. And with 67 characters collectively (32, 14 and 21 respectively), it’s very easy to lose the sense of any conversations taking place.
If I didn’t know it beforehand, I don’t know that I’d peg these as Clive Barker works. They have their fantastique elements, for sure, but they also seem very tame in comparison to his later work. I could see these plays having influenced the Barker that came after, but I don’t know I’d see them as Barker’s own work, even early work.
I’m really trying to be impartial here and review FORMS OF HEAVEN without the shadow of INCARNATIONS having over it, but I don’t know if that’s possible. There are only 2 books of Clive Barker’s theatre work in print--or previously in print--so the two just seem so connected in my mind, feeding off of and serving as reflections of each other. Of the two, INCARNATIONS is the more enjoyable collection, but the work in FORMS OF HEAVEN feels so much more complete and developed. In the end, I recommend both. I mean, they’re Clive Barker. That should have been all I had to say in the beginning.
March 25, 2021
i'm not a huge theater fan but i loved crazyface. it just shows clive barker is fantastic at movies, books, comics, and plays.
August 26, 2013
Amazingly funny plays from the master of the fantastic
In Forms of Heaven, the second collection of plays written by Clive Barker during his early creative years, three extraordinary plays have been brought together. In Crazyface the audience follows the adventures of the famous Tyl Eulenspiegel and the struggle for a valuable secret between the great countries of Europe's Dark Ages. In Paradise Street an impoverished and totally destroyed Liverpool street get a visit of a group time travellers that is not at all interested in keeping the equilibrium of time. And finally in Subtle Bodies Clive Barker shows what happens if some outrageous characters stay the night in a hotel and share one apocalyptic common dream.
The numerous fans of Clive Barker are already more than convinced of the amazing imaginative powers of the author. But the early plays that Clive wrote might still amaze many of them. In a format that is less descriptive than a 400-page novel, the author still succeeds in constructing a fantastic and powerful imagery that again and again absorbs the reader into a sea of dreams and imagination. Whereas in his previous collection of plays, Incarnations, the focus was overwhelmingly on the horrific and the violent, the plays collected in Forms of Heaven have a much lighter and humorous common denominator. Certainly the scenes where many actors share the stage are not only strangely absurd, but also tremendously funny. The outspoken production notes, added to each play, will help you to feel what it would be like to see them acted out on a real stage. I sure hope to get an opportunity to enjoy such a show.
In Forms of Heaven, the second collection of plays written by Clive Barker during his early creative years, three extraordinary plays have been brought together. In Crazyface the audience follows the adventures of the famous Tyl Eulenspiegel and the struggle for a valuable secret between the great countries of Europe's Dark Ages. In Paradise Street an impoverished and totally destroyed Liverpool street get a visit of a group time travellers that is not at all interested in keeping the equilibrium of time. And finally in Subtle Bodies Clive Barker shows what happens if some outrageous characters stay the night in a hotel and share one apocalyptic common dream.
The numerous fans of Clive Barker are already more than convinced of the amazing imaginative powers of the author. But the early plays that Clive wrote might still amaze many of them. In a format that is less descriptive than a 400-page novel, the author still succeeds in constructing a fantastic and powerful imagery that again and again absorbs the reader into a sea of dreams and imagination. Whereas in his previous collection of plays, Incarnations, the focus was overwhelmingly on the horrific and the violent, the plays collected in Forms of Heaven have a much lighter and humorous common denominator. Certainly the scenes where many actors share the stage are not only strangely absurd, but also tremendously funny. The outspoken production notes, added to each play, will help you to feel what it would be like to see them acted out on a real stage. I sure hope to get an opportunity to enjoy such a show.
February 9, 2015
This second collection of plays by Clive Barker is lighter in subject matter and execution than his previous one, but the tales are still delightfully bizarre and showcase Barker's usual trademarks of sexuality, violence, absurdism, redemption, intertexuality, and compassion. CRAZYFACE is excellent and heart-wreching, SUBTLE BODIES unique and thought provoking, but the standout is really PARADISE STREET, which may win the award for quirkiest Christmas play ever, with the collections most realized characters and something truly indefinably awesome about this mash up of Christmas miracle play and British kitchen sink drama. As usual, Barker also offers excellent roles for women, untraditional takes of homosexuality and bisexuality, and much to chew over in regards to matters of freedom, feminism, spirituality, divinity, expression, honesty and social constraint. Truly one of Theater's most under-appreciated artists, these plays are all great reads but mostly you walk away wondering why Barker isn't more commonly performed when his work so absolutely and unquestionably should be.
September 11, 2010
A trio of lighter plays by Clive Barker but each are imbedded with ideas and obsessions that carry through all of his fiction. As with all plays I think they are better acted sense that is their intention but well worth the read if there is any interest in the many forms Clive Barkers fiction takes.
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May 7, 2009Just reread "Crazyface" before going to see the new production of it on the 21st in DC. It's bizarre, and I look forward to seeing it in person. I hope that it makes me catch my breath and feel incredibly uncomfortable.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews