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A review by jaymoran
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play by August Wilson
4.0
They don't care nothing about me. All they want is my voice. Well, I done learned that, and they gonna treat me like I want to be treated no matter how much it hurt them. They back there now calling me all kinds of names...calling me everything but a child of god. But they can't do nothing else. They ain't got what they wanted yet.
4.5
My first experience with the work of August Wilson was with the captivating 2017 adaptation of Fences starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, and my interest was again peaked with the release of another adaptation in 2020, again starring Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. After watching the trailer, I decided I'd pick up the play and read that first this time.
It sounds strange to call a play that takes place in a recording studio and mostly involves characters conversing with one another thrilling but that's exactly what this was. Electricity crackles in the dialogue as these characters rub each other up the wrong way over and over again - toes are stepped on, tongues are sharp, trouble is brewing - and it's impossible to look away.
Wilson examines how racism has influenced and dictated the lives of these various Black musicians. He dissects these characters to their smallest, most vulnerable parts, particularly the character of Levee, the youngest member of the band who is leaning more into the jazz sound and is feeling chafed by the constraints of the blues. The portrait Wilson paints of Ma Rainey is phenomenal - I've been a lover jazz and blues music for years so I was familiar with her name but I'm now intrigued to learn more about her because her presence in this play was fierce yet also tired. She knows she isn't respected as a human being, she is only tolerated by the white men, Irvin and Sturdyvant because her voice is profitable to them, a fact she's worked against all of her career and is now exhausting her.
The ending of this play is like a thunderclap that boxes you on the ears and leaves them ringing - I can't wait to read Fences now and explore more of Wilson's work because this such a striking, powerful piece.
4.5
My first experience with the work of August Wilson was with the captivating 2017 adaptation of Fences starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, and my interest was again peaked with the release of another adaptation in 2020, again starring Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. After watching the trailer, I decided I'd pick up the play and read that first this time.
It sounds strange to call a play that takes place in a recording studio and mostly involves characters conversing with one another thrilling but that's exactly what this was. Electricity crackles in the dialogue as these characters rub each other up the wrong way over and over again - toes are stepped on, tongues are sharp, trouble is brewing - and it's impossible to look away.
Wilson examines how racism has influenced and dictated the lives of these various Black musicians. He dissects these characters to their smallest, most vulnerable parts, particularly the character of Levee, the youngest member of the band who is leaning more into the jazz sound and is feeling chafed by the constraints of the blues. The portrait Wilson paints of Ma Rainey is phenomenal - I've been a lover jazz and blues music for years so I was familiar with her name but I'm now intrigued to learn more about her because her presence in this play was fierce yet also tired. She knows she isn't respected as a human being, she is only tolerated by the white men, Irvin and Sturdyvant because her voice is profitable to them, a fact she's worked against all of her career and is now exhausting her.
The ending of this play is like a thunderclap that boxes you on the ears and leaves them ringing - I can't wait to read Fences now and explore more of Wilson's work because this such a striking, powerful piece.