She is known as the original Sixties wild child, former flame of Mick Jagger and cigarette-fuelled singer. But Marianne Faithfull's first love is the stage. Now the 56-year-old rock diva is to make her return to the London theatre after more than three decades - in a starring role as the devil incarnate.
Faithfull will play Pegleg, the evil lead in William Burroughs's dark fable The Black Rider, which receives its English premiere at the Barbican Theatre in May.
"I've had all sorts of nonsense offers in recent years - they wanted me to be in The Graduate," Faithfull told the Evening Standard. "But I'm a special kind of actress, I'm not an everyday actress. This play is exactly me, it's what I've been waiting for."
She added: "My main job may be the music but I love acting and I'm dying to get back on the stage."
Former heroin addict Faithfull admits her interest in the "junkie" lifestyle was first piqued by reading Burroughs's novel the Naked Lunch. The Black Rider makes reference to heroin as "the devil's work".
Based on an 18th century German fable, it tells of a young man, Wilhelm, who makes a Faustian pact with Satan and accepts magic bullets to win the heart of his beloved in a shooting contest.
The Black Rider's Barbican production is directed by Robert Wilson, who directed the first performance in Hamburg in 1991. Music is by Tom Waits.
According to records, Faithfull's last performance in a London stageplay was in 1974, as Miranda in John Fowles's The Collector, at the St Martin's Theatre.
Faithfull said: "I've admired Bob Wilson for a very long time and I saw The Black Rider while I was touring in Hamburg. I thought it was absolutely fantastic but never imagined I'd be in it - not least because he has never cast a woman in this role."
She added: "I've been rereading Burroughs in preparation. I actually knew him very well."
- The Black Rider opens as part of the Barbican's Bite: 04 season on 17 May.
