The Black Rider

Artist's Page
Contact

<< Back to list
<< St. Rose Home

The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a musical theatre piece featuring music and lyrics by Tom Waits, text from the late William S. Burroughs and musical arrangements by Greg Cohen and Waits. The work re-imagines a 19th century German folk tale called “Der Freischutz” (The Free Shooter), about a clerk who makes a Faustian pact with the devil, accepting magic bullets in order to win the hand of his beloved in a shooting contest. The story was recreated twice after it’s original printing, once as an opera in 1821 and again as a short story titled “The Fatal Marksman” in1823 by Thomas de Quincy. The Fatal Marksman, along with the original tale of Der Freischutz, would later inspire Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and William S. Burroughs to create The Black Rider.

Their exciting innovative collaboration premiered in 1990 at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. As Waits explains, "Burroughs found some of the branches of the story, and let them grow into more metaphorical things in all of our lives every day that, in fact, are deals with the Devil that we've made. What is cunning about those deals is that we're not aware we've made them. And when they come to fruition, we are shocked and amazed." In 1998, the November Theatre production of The Black Rider premiered at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. It was the World English Language Premiere and has gone on to a successful North American tour.