August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
06/02/2016 - 06/19/2016
12:00 am
Categories
As part of The August Wilson Festival, Short North Stage presents a full production of this searing drama. The play is set in a run-down recording studio in Chicago in 1927. The legendary “Mother of Blues,” Ma Rainey, is due to arrive to record a new take on a favorite song. Ma uses every trick she can muster to fight her white record producer for control of her music. Hardened by years of ill-treatment and bad deals, she’s determined that ‘Black Bottom’, the song that bears her name, will be recorded her way. But one of her band members, a swaggering young trumpet player, tries to manipulate the producer to record instead his new hip version of the song. A battle ensues. This masterpiece is a riveting portrayal of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation. Performances run Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Click Here for tickets.