Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

This was an excellent period play. I have seen it performed live, read this book/script and have also watched the Netflix adaptation. I must say that the live stage performance is definitely the best!

Great character's in dynamic spiritual-material interplay in this view of African-Americans in the 1920s. A black blues diva and her boys in the band in conflict with one another and their Jewish recorders and producers. The set is a music recording studio in Chicago. The producers want to make money. The band wants to make music. Ma Rainey (a characterization of a real singer) wants things done her way, but she also wants everyone in the band to be treated justly and fairly. Slow Drag just wants to get along. The trumpet player wants everyone to notice him and his style. Toledo, the philosopher, wants everyone in the band to take stock of his life and act in ways that benefit others, not just himself. The tragic ending emphasizes the continuing conflict of the material against the spiritual. As usual, the dialects ring true and the characters seem as if they really could have lived.

Enjoyed reading this play, rather than seeing it performed. I've seen it performed several times, but each actor usually tries to over act the part. I didn't know this play was so good--until I read it.

No one dares criticize the great August Wilson. It is a treatise on how the black man’s life is an elegy of the blues.

Excellent product!

The mise -en-scene for this play is a recording studio in the early blues period. Its climax for me is a firey speech by MA Rainey tourching god and religion and their culpability in the white abuse of black people. One of the most steller angry speeches I have ever read. You will quite possibly sit there post speech stunned and saying to yourself "Oh No she didn't just say all that, did she?"

The characters seem real. The story is an emotional look at the hurtful interactions blacks trying to have their own identity in a white world.

This is the second August Wilson play I've read. While not as moving as Fences, it is quite good. It ended in a surprise, if only because it seemed a little too abrupt and forced.

We had to read this for part of our university module. Really enjoyed the play, very funny at times but also a hard-hitting play on how black people are treated in the music business - some of which still stands today.Stage directions are informative and make the play a great read as you can truly visualise the play while reading.

Superb follow up after seeing this brilliantly performed play in the National Theatre