Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson

Set in Chicago in 1927, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom deals with issues of race, art, religion and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers.

The play is part of August Wilson's Century Cycle, his epic dramatisation of the African American experience in the twentieth century.

This edition includes a Foreword by Frank Rich.

'It was hard to watch Ma Rainey without thinking of Eugene O'Neill's Iceman Cometh. The plays are both marked by claustrophobia, a slow-fuse dramatic structure, meaty arias, a devastating dramatic payoff and their authors' profound identification with those who are betrayed by the gaudy promise of the American dream' Frank Rich, from his Foreword

August Wilson was a well-known American playwright whose work has frequently been praised as among the best in the country's theater. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, his first play, won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for outstanding new play in 1984-85. Fences, his second play, received the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for best play of the year in 1987. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named Joe Turner's third play, Come and Gone, the greatest play of 1987-1988. Wilson won his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson in 1990. In 2005, he passed away.