Hot theatrical ticket

The Black Rider

This promises to be one of the hottest theatrical events of the year - a collaboration between cult US director Robert Wilson, composer Tom Waits and Beat writer William Burroughs, for a production starring Marianne Faithfull.

True, when Wilson collaborated last year with Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the a cappella group Sweet Honey In The Rock, for an adaptation of Flaubert's story The Temptation Of St Anthony, the bland, primary-coloured result was far from satisfactory.

Yet, if other collaborations with Waits are anything to go by, this latest production - first seen in Germany in 1991 - should prove an exciting evening out.

Faithfull plays Pegleg, the Black Rider of the title, in a tale about a clerk who makes Faustian pact with the Devil by accepting magic bullets to win his beloved's heart in a shooting contest. A new band - named after The Magic Bullets - has been formed specially to bring Waits's idiosyncratic harmonies alive.

Previewing from Mon 17 May, first night Fri 21 May, Barbican, Silk Street, EC2 (020-7638 8891).