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Ma Rainey's Black BottomPart of The August Wilson Century CycleDateline: 20th April, 2008The third play in the Century Cycle, introduced by veteran New York Times critic Frank Rich, was the work that launched him to stardom. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom takes us up to 1927 and the Jazz Age. It is unique in this sequence in being set in Chicago rather than Pittsburgh and features a real-life character, the larger-than-life blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, a rival to Bessie Smith. Despite the geographical change, August Wilson's interests continue to be those of his people and the ways in which they get by in a society that has all the cards stacked up against them. Ma Rainey, once played on stage by Whoopi Goldberg, may be a somewhat tyrannical star with an inflated view of her own importance. She would and does argue that her ability to make the white men who run a record company rich, she is entitled to recognition. However, she knows as well as anyone that while she can rule the roost in the recording studio, as soon as he gets outside, she is not even allowed to choose her seat on public transport and risks being arrested for doing not much more than existing. This play, though, is as much about the members of her band as it is about Ma. The main characters are in their 50s and wistfully look back on missed opportunities. They still have old-fashioned attitudes, partly bred from a history of slavery that is still not too many generations back. Cutler has a fundamentalist belief in religion, while Toledo is someone who understands the historical context of his people and wants to prevent repetitions of past ignominies. The one fresh face is a self-important man from a younger generation, Levee. He is in his early 30s and, together with a delight in childlike improvising on the trumpet, has the kind of pride that goes before a fall. Levee is willing to spend a week's salary on a pair of shoes to win a pretty girl and has every faith that despite the fact that his choice is Ma's lover, he will be successful. Similarly, he has such belief in his own orchestrations of the title song that he does not listen to sense, with tragic consequences. Ultimately, he becomes a symbol of a real change in black attitudes, perhaps a precursor of the Black Power movement four decades in the future. This independent musical talent is a Faustian character willing to sell his soul to the devil for a few weeks of fun, let alone several decades. In part, this might be a response to the childhood experience of seeing his mother gang raped by a bunch of white men but also owes a lot to a different view of his place in society from those of his elder colleagues. As with all of Wilson's work, much of the interest in this play lies in the stories that are related. Once again, these feature the appalling treatment that supposedly civilised Whites perpetrated on innocent former slaves and their children, culminating in a terrifying tale of a priest who was lucky to escape with his life. While it reads well on the page, this is a play to be seen and more importantly heard, as the jazz and blues numbers must form so great a part of a production. Even so, it is still possible to get something of a feel for the work from the script. Philip Fisher
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