San Francisco City Guide

Richards is the surprise stand out of the production. A voice that goes from Falsetto to Tom Waits-style growl to heart-rending operatic yodel...

San Francisco Chronicle 3/9/04 Robert Hurwitt

A striking sight to behold- Robert Wilson's darkly poetic Black Rider a magical ACT opening

The performances are as mesmerizing as they are flawless. The music soars on the ethereal eeriness of a musical saw or a glass harmonica, descends into gut-bucket grit and pulsates with coarsely seductive carny bravado, reflecting the laconic poetry, huckster hipness and deadpan wit of the text. The visual package combines images of astonishing spare beauty and nightmarish complexity with plain old vaudeville drop-pants humour.

The Fall theatre season got off to its most memorable start in years Wednesday with the opening of Robert Wilson's Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets at the Geary Theatre. The combination of Wilson's witty, exhileratingly eye-opening theatricality- his precisely choreographed imagery and exquisitely sculpted choreography- with William S Burroughs' wryly evocative text and Tom Waits' lovely, grungy, ingeniously eclectic score is more than a triumphant season opener for the American Conservatory Theatre. It's a gift.

Black Rider is a masterpiece on its own terms...and it's performed by a superb ensemble led by the casually seductive Marianne Faithful, delightfully marrionette-clownish Matt McGrath, irresistably quirky-mechanical Mary Margaret O'Hara and genially ghoulish Jack Willis.

But its a gift, too, if only for ending the area's decades-long Wilson drought. Wilson, considered one of the world's influential directors at least since Einstein on the Beach in '76...had never been presented here...

McGrath's Wilhelm is the perfect fool with his wide, clueless grin- a Cabaret emcee as a hapless human puppet, executing deftly understated slapstick with long limbs manipulated by invisible strings...he's in love with Katchen, played and sung to stunning mechanical doll-like effect by O'Hara..The formidable Nigel Richards executes a tour de force of gravel voiced song and demonic, rope-constricted dance as one of the devil's earlier marksman clients...Willis has an astonishing solo turn...ominous Sona Cervena and Monika Tahal, uttering chilling strangled bird calls, make impressive contributions as well.
It's all beautifully packaged. Wilson frames every scene in visuals of stunning simplicity...the formalism enhances the works' surprising emotional impact...in the end, when McGrath sings an upbeat cabaret ditty, the broken heart and fractured psyche beneath the desperate smile is deeply affecting. Its a well worn device, but its Wilson's skill in reframing and revitalising such devices that forms part of his genius.

The Wall Street Journal 15/9/04 David Littlejohn

The Devil and Robert Wilson

...Robert Wilson (who is usually referred to as 'legendary')..works with a limited palette- light and colour, primarily; a few symbolic stage pieces; non-naturalistic costuming; and a puppet-master's control of movement and gesture. He is not interested in 'realistic' acting or character, explicit relationships between characters, coherent plots, or definable meanings. In fact, he likes to create productions in which words, music and stage images appear to go in different directions...this approach has resulted in strange, one-of-a-kind works that can- for a moment- make all other forms of stagecraft seem predictable, formulaic and bland...

What makes the Black Rider more accessible and enjoyable than Mr Wilsons' more challenging productions is that its bitter 1930's-German cabaret style is actually often funny...

Stage settings and lighting are accomplished with Mr Wilsons' trademark brilliance...in a simple box or famed set, rear walls or curtains transmute into the most exquisite blends of colour, then jolt of an instant into flame-red or black...

It almost seems perverse to talk about actors in a Wilson production, since his godlike hand turns them all into marionettes. The biggest name performer, Marianne Faithfull...was on leave the day I saw the show. Nigel Richards did a wonderful job in this Lotte Lenya-style role, croaking out wicked lies and sentimental ballads with equal panache...but it is the devil who has the last word, after despatching the rest of the mad cast into the same upended black coffin from which they arrived, he/she gratefully picks up a rose someone has thrown, and sings an affectionately touching Last Rose Of Summer before disappearing as well.

Gloss Issue 20 Veronica Klaus

If I was excited as the curtain went up, I was even more elated when I realised that in addition to the promising team writing, composing and directing the show, a truly amazing cast had been assembled...the incredible Nigel Richards, whose song at the end of Act I was truly a show stopper!...

The San Jose Mercury 3/9/04 Karen D'Souza

Luckily, Wilson has assembled a mesmerizing cast that can pull off the peculiar in high style. Matt McGrath rivets as Wilhelm, a mild-mannered clerk driven to bloodlust by his newly bargained skill as a marksman..Faithful..does muster up a creepy little leer..but McGrath lets the full emotional weight of the fable invest his every gesture...Jack Willis likewise electrifies as the vaguely vampiric carnival barker type who invite us into this universe of howling maniacs like George, the deft Nigel Richards and twittering coquettes..

The In dependant Review 26/5/04 Keith Shadwick (London)

...there is scarcely a character or action that engages our sympathy..despite the elaborate colour schemes and movement, and the best efforts of the ...actors, who work hard to make it all mean something (as does the excellent musical ensemble in the pit). Chief among them is Nigel Richards, principally playing Georg Schmid, who is led astray by the devil in the pursuit of ultimate happiness. His sense of stillness, wonderfully precise movements and sheer dignity...almost saves this from damnation...

The Sunday Telegraph 30/5/04 Ben Thompson (London)

Devilsh rasp and quaver

Few people would deny that the grizzled soak Tom Waits has written music of extraordinary beauty...now that a British audience can at last hear these songs in the theatrical setting for which they were originally intended, their human virtues shine through...with macabre and satisfying gusto, The Black Rider The Show colonises the middle-ground between the Addams Family and Samuel Beckett (or Bertold Brecht and Tim Burton).

For all the smoke and mirrors of Wilson's stagecraft- magical folding trees, scary birds-head silhouettes- the real excitement is in the orchestra pit. Far from the jaded hacks who sometimes occupy that space, Bent Clausen's all-star eight-piece band seize the opportunity to express themselves on a grand scale...

Two remarkable performances steal (Marianne's) show: one is Mary Margaret O'Hara's Katchen, a stepford wife with Tourettes. The other is Nigel Richards's amazing hunting boy, the demonic progeny of Bjork and Adolph Hitler, with a little bit of Human League's Phil Oakey thrown in for good measure.