The Black Rider
Out of context: Reply #7
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*Bump.
I came down with one ;)
First of all, I can not express enough that anyone in London tries to get tickets for this. The Barbican is a relatively small theater and even if you get £10 tickets you will still quite an experience. My girlfriend could "only" get the £25 tickets. We were stage right, three rows from the front!
Being a long time fan of Tom Waits, and an even longer fan of William Burroughs, I was pretty sure that this would not disappoint. However, my experience of the Theater has always been one of expectation and disappointment, probably due to the fact that I had the likes of Shakespeare forced upon me as the be all and end all of theater... For the record, Shakespeare does fuck all for me and I resent being taught it at an age when there was so much more out there that would have held my interest. Up until last night - theater had never grabbed me by the balls.
From the outset of the first cast remember on stage (well actually - he wasn't on the stage but walking down by the front row) armed with a megaphone quite obviously narrating a Burroughs piece in a monotone deep-drawl with typical Waits marching band drums.... it was apparent that they had done their homework. It was as if Burroughs himself was acting many of the parts and the actors, male and female, had done a great job of singing his parts if you can imagine Burroughs singing.
Then there was the mad insanity of some characters... a girl singing and gibbering like some schizophrenic bird... wringing her hands every now and then and generally twitching al lot..... this guy pulling an insane grin with a huge mouth and long black hair down one side of his face. He looked like a joker... they all look like jokers.... like bad dreams. The Rocky Horror show meets Jacobs Ladder... Kind of bearable one minute, and then a scene from hell the next... Brides walling through fields of dead game and dry ice in a slow motion nightmare. There were parts in this that visually and aurally blew me away.
Throughout the cast were in perfect time with the score... the two were welded solid. Everything about this was water tight... the words, acting, music and set were quite simply put together by people at the top of their game.
TIME magazine called it "a triumph". I couldn't say better. Only problem for me is that if I go to the theater ever again - I will always be disappointed.
Top.
You have to go see this.