{"id":4094,"date":"2016-07-01T00:04:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T00:04:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-01-16T21:44:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T21:44:06","slug":"ma-raineys-black-bottom-or-four-men-talk-and-talk-and-talk-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2016\/07\/01\/ma-raineys-black-bottom-or-four-men-talk-and-talk-and-talk-html\/","title":{"rendered":"Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom, or Four Men Talk and Talk and Talk\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Picture\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u200bOne time, in this screenwriting competition I entered, the judges said my characters were flames (that means good) but that there wasn\u2019t really a plot driving their actions forward. If I could, I would go back in time and say to them, well, invariably white dudes, listen, August Wilson did it, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom is a play from 1982, not a new play as I must admit I thought because I never heard of it before it won the Olivier for Best Revival of a Play this year. That\u2019s the Oliviers (West End), not the Tonys (Broadway), so just keep that in mind. (Actually it won the Tony for Best Play when it premiered!) And this is a good production, with some powerful performances and an excellent set, but goodness, I did not feel the material working. There is no plot. Nothing really happens, and yet so much feels about to happen that it\u2019s almost disappointing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ma Rainey was the mother (get it, ma) of the blues, an incredible musical talent and mentor to other queens like Bessie Smith. In fact, my previous exposure to her was mostly due to Mo\u2019Nique in the movie \u201cBessie\u201d with Queen Latifah. She was so good, Latifs. They both were! I would have loved if the movie showed more of Ma and her relationship with Bessie, so I was so excited for a play that was all about her. Her life seemed beyond compelling. I was pumped!<\/p>\n

I was also so psyched to hear her sing a lot, as I assumed she would. I mean, I knew it wasn\u2019t produced as a musical, it was a play, but so was \u201cLady Day\u201d and that was all music (2 hours with Billie Holiday – you\u2019re gonna want it to be mostly music!). I figured it was technically a play because, while full of music, it wasn\u2019t music that advanced the plot or composed part of the plot, as musicals are defined. (For laymen: “Pitch Perfect”, for example, isn\u2019t a \u2018musical\u2019 despite being very musical, because the characters actively know they are singing and it\u2019s not like they are living in song or singing their feelings instead of talking them. The music isn\u2019t the plot.)<\/p>\n

Well, surprise, Ma Rainey isn\u2019t even that kind of play.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mostly Ma\u2019s band, four musicians with differing viewpoints on life and race, talking in the rehearsal room before Ma arrives to record a session, and then talking after Ma leaves the session. Ma is a featured character, if that.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure if you know this in advance, you’re good to go, but I didn\u2019t, so this was incredibly disappointing. Ma sang for about 20 seconds and it was RG because she was played by the great Sharon D. Clarke, but then it was all talk and no Ma.<\/p>\n

So what is it about, this revered play from the esteemed August Wilson? It’s Chicago in the 1920s and the band is being taken advantage of by the white producers, of course, and arguing about race and their experience as black men at this time. They talk and argue and wait, along with the producers as they wait for Ma. And they wait some more. They\u2019re being held in the basement rehearsal room in the recording studio, which we several parts of in this impressive set.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The four men are Cutler, Toledo, Slow Drag (I can’t, best name ever)<\/span>, and Levee. Toledo is wise and cautious. Levee is a live wire who is loud and reckless. He\u2019s obsessed with how he presents himself to the world and thinks he\u2019s entitled to a lot more than he gets in life, which is undoubtedly true given both his talent and the fact that he\u2019s a black man, but his abrasive attitude is a turnoff to even the people who could be his friends. While they wait, the men argue about their position in the world, about their struggles and how to get on, while Levee shows off his new white shoes that he bought. He also gives some new songs he wrote to the white producers and is sure they are going to buy them. We hear really upsetting stories from all the men, especially Levee’s personal background is enough to make you feel sympathetic for anyone. Everything they say reinforces how unjust and unfair society was and still is. Their commentary on race is compelling and provocative – it just doesn’t make for the most gripping plot.<\/p>\n

When Ma comes really late, she sings a tiny bit, and pisses off the white producers because of how late everything is and because she demands that her stuttering nephew do the intro to the title song, which takes a while, and everyone gets pissed off, and then Ma leaves. The entire part that was advertised was the tiniest part of the show. Sharon was really good too. Darn.<\/p>\n

After the session, the men retreat to their basement cave and argue more. Why aren\u2019t they going home? (It’s unclear that they are waiting to be paid, which I just looked up.) They finished the session. I was confused! And one of them was fired! I was like past Bunuel asking questions of future Bunuel\u2019s art in \u201cMidnight in Paris\u2019 – \u201cwhy don\u2019t they just leave?\u201d Somehow the little micro (or not so micro) aggressions build and build to a point that you can’t believe it reaches.<\/p>\n

The play, depending on how it’s performed, can build to this climax in a way where even though it is a shock, it’s not a surprise that something catastrophic happened like this. But in this production, it was so unexpected and didn’t feel earned. Not like ooh that\u2019s an intriguing surprise, more like, that\u2019s action from a different play entirely. How it was directed and acted, no matter how good the individual parts were, it didn’t feel like they had a cohesive goal. I honestly don\u2019t know what the play was trying to achieve. The tone was all over the place. Amid the harrowing stories, there would be this air of levity in the direction of the show, almost treating it like a comedy, and I couldn’t tell what it wanted to be.<\/p>\n

Also, I get that most people probably are more familiar with this show, but I found the advertising misleading. The main show art is of Ma at a microphone. If you saw that, what would you think the show was about? Same as I did, right? I should have done research but most people don\u2019t. Not since the advertising campaign for \u201cThe Scottsboro Boys\u201d<\/a> in London have I found marketing materials to be so misleading. Nonetheless, I have to applaud the acting across the board and the production values. A lot of the men\u2019s long talks were provocative and challenging, and it really does say genuinely important things about injustice and race. As monologues, they are effective, but as a play it is stagnant.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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