Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play in Two Acts

Rating:
Summary: It's a question. How can I show a student of mine how strong
Review: I would welcome suggestions to the analysis of August Wilson's " Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" at secondary school level. The book is too powerful but sometimes my students have difficulties in understanding its strenght.Sorry this is not a review, it's a cry of "Hellllp".

I am 41 years old. In my computer ages only go up to 12

Rating:
Summary: Talky, but interesting
Review: This play is set in a studio during the early days of sound recording. Ma Rainey's back-up band awaits the overdue arrival of the so-called Queen of Blues, discussing their lives and arguing about the music scene and their places in it. The white studio execs are practically tearing their hair out over Ma's tardiness and the demands that she is sure to make when she arrives. When she finally comes, she is every bit as demanding and overbearing as we expect, but also very perceptive-she is well aware that black artists are being exploited by the very record company people who continually urge her to be "reasonable" about the amount of money that she "wastes" on personal demands while recording the music that makes them so rich.

Although it features very good dialogue and some fine monologues, nothing much happens dramatically during the course of the play. There is an explosive finale, but it feels contrived and overdone, as though Wilson didn't know where to take his characters after all of the talking stopped.

Rating:
Summary: The insightful play is a mix of comedy and drama.
Review: This play shows how the rage caused by racism can be manifested in unusual ways. Each character, the blues singer and her band, has a different means of trying to gain control of a racist society hoping to, thereby, overcome it. The author's surprisingly humurous dialogue accentuates the story but, there is no mistaking the gravity of these characters's pain. Wilson's writing makes the play fast-paced and gives excellent insight to the histories of the individual characters. The use of blues lyrics and speech make them not just backdrops but characters, themselves. The abrupt ending seems a little forced, but the play is extremely entertaining.