The rock opera The Black Rider is the result of an extraordinary meeting of three famous American minds working and engaging with (among other things) German art, musical tradition, history, and cultural myth, transforming it into something quite spectacularly new and fascinating. William Borroughs, famous Beat poet and notorious junkie, provided the scenario; Robert Wilson, hero of experimental multi-media theatre, set the stage and directed, and Tom Waits, famous for his songs about down-trodden outsiders, contributed the music to accompany Borroughs' text as well as a series of vaudeville-inspired songs. This new production at the Barbican is the first English language staging of The Black Rider, originally performed in German at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990. Wilson adapted the play slightly to suit the English cast. 
      William Borroughs scenario is a reworking of a nineteenth century tale of horror called Der Freischuetz (The-Free-Schooter) by Johann August Apel. The story line of The Black Rider is simple: A young clerk by the name of Wilhelm, nephew to the local count, falls in love with the forester's daughter Käthchen, and wants to marry her. Käthchen's father, however, wants an accomplished hunter (Robert) to marry his daughter. Wilhelm, a stranger to the forest and its laws, is a very bad shot. In order to win the hand of his beloved, Wilhelm makes a Faustian pact with Peg Leg (or the devil) that will provide him with magic bullets. Though cautioned that "the devil's bargain is a fool's bargain," Wilhelm cannot give up his newly acquired power and asks for more magic bullets. He ends up shooting his bride. 
      This dark romantic tale is set in the nightmarish world of German Expressionism, of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The silent films of the Expressionist provide the atmosphere and inspiration for Wilson's stage sets and a guideline for the way the actors use their bodies to express meaning. Wilson borrows extensively from the way the Expressionist set designers in the 1920 shaped objects, distorted the visual field, and used shrill light effects to turn the ordinary into a lunatics vision of the world. The protagonist Wilhelm looks much like the somnambulist Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with his white mask-like face and the black greasy hair, and he and his fellow actors move with the jerky movements of puppets on a string. The play is introduced by the Duke and Master of Ceremonies, a devilish figure himself, who invites the audience to come into the circus and see a freak show. 
      Apart from the obvious allusions to, and quotes from, Expressionism, there are constant allusions to themes in German history, in particular to the Nazi era. A banner or curtain announcing "The Black Rider, The Cas(s)ting of the Magic Bullets ss" is full of double use of s, as in SS, the Fascist elite troops. Both The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari have been interpreted as dealing with the theme of fascism. The devilish MC in the opening scene recalls the MC in Bob Fosse's film Cabaret which also deals with the rise of fascism. There are also several birds in this production that look like the German Eagles, symbol of German strength and empire, used by the Nazis. In addition the banner is drawn in the colors of the German flag - red, black and yellow. I could go on. Fascism was Germany's pact with the devil? Is there meant to be a political message hidden in the play? 
      The world of somnambulism, lunacy, and the freak show created in The Black Rider lends itself well to a tale that can also be read on a different level as a tale about drug addiction and its consequences. William Borroughs' life was a constant fight with drug addiction and addiction to magic stuff (bullets) forms the center of the play. The Black Rider may also be an attempt to come to terms with one tragic bullet that did not find its way, a bullet that went astray. In 1951 Borroughs shot and killed his wife Jane in a drug-fuelled attempt to imitate Wilhelm Tell, who shot an apple from his son's head. The name Wilhelm, then, is not accidentally the name of the protagonist of The Black Rider; it points to Borroughs himself. 
      In the ballad Crossroad drug usage is likened to devil's work: "Now, George was a good straight boy to begin with but there was bad blood in him, someway he got into the magic bullets and that leads straight to Devil's work, just like marijuana leads to heroin." And Borroughs' comes back to the tragic consequences of drug usage in his own life: "You see, some bullets is special for a single aim, a certain stag, or a certain person. And no matter where you are, that's where the bullet will end up, And in the moment of aiming, the gun turns into a dowser's wand, And points where the bullet wants to go." 
      The song's moralistic tone, "don't do drugs, it's a pact with the devil," however, is undercut by deadpan delivery and Tom Waits' queer cacophonic music. The musical arrangements, inspired by the Brecht-Weill tradition, lift The Black Rider out of the gloomy beauty of its visual presentation, release it from its theme, and turn it into an amazing theatrical experience. Tom Waits' music and songs gain a lot by being performed by different and trained voices - his solo album 
      The Black Rider is quite hard to take by itself. The actors appear comfortable with their highly stylized performances and seem to share in the fun of impersonating figures that are inspired by comic strips and horror movies. Mat McGrath, who plays Wilhelm, impresses with his precise pantomimic movements and clownish facial expressions, whereas his dark counterpart Peg Leg, sensually played by Marianne Faithfull, convinces with her husky voice. 
      The Black Rider consists pretty much of a jumble of allusions, set pieces, songs, texts, sound and light effects that do not in themselves form a coherent whole. Nevertheless the overall experience is of such a delirious nature that the lack of cohesion is not experienced as a loss.
Pia Conti-Gemes