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<\/p>\nBy Peter Thomas Ricci<\/p>\n
Writers Theatre\u2019s production of the August Wilson play \u201cMa Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom\u201d is directed by the inimitable Ron OJ Parsons, and like all of Parsons\u2019 treatments on Wilson\u2019s plays, the production has notable strengths: the cast, led by Alfred H. Wilson, Kelvin Roston, Jr., and Felicia P. Fields, is uniformly excellent; the scenic design (by Todd Rosenthal) is first rate; and the lighting (by Jared Gooding) is marvelously precise. However, all that talent cannot hide the fact that \u201cMa Rainey\u201d is among the weakest plays in Wilson\u2019s esteemed Pittsburgh Cycle.<\/p>\n
Set in Chicago in the 1920s, \u201cMa Rainey\u201d is a day in the life of black blues musicians at a white-owned recording studio. Across two cleverly arranged stages \u2013 one the band\u2019s rehearsal space, the other the recording space \u2013 we learn about the characters, their motivations, and in classic Wilson fashion, the subjugation and oppression that haunt them from day to day. Wilson loved his archetypes, and \u201cMa Rainey\u201d is filled with them: Levee (Roston) is the talented but impatient trumpeter with visions of grandeur; Toledo (David Alan Anderson) is the irritating nationalist who knows all about \u201cthe white man\u201d and his mischievous ways; Dussie Mae (the promising Tiffany Renee Johnson) is the sexpot whose sole purpose in the show, from what I can tell, is to look beautiful and kiss Levee; and Sylvester (Jalen Gilbert) is the well-meaning simpleton with a speech impediment; all these characters have been seen, in some form or another, in Wilson\u2019s other plays.<\/p>\n
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Which leads me to the big rub with this production \u2013 despite the talented cast\u2019s efforts (and they put their all into the roles, particularly Roston), \u201cMa Rainey\u201d eventually feels like a less focused, sloppier version of \u201cSeven Guitars,\u201d to say nothing of Wilson\u2019s many other productions. We know what is in store: meandering dialogue among characters with no attention to verisimilitude, let alone authenticity; reiteration after reiteration of the play\u2019s themes; shallow white characters (Wilson\u2019s white characters are either hapless, conniving, or unrealistically good); and elongated monologues where characters recount the horrors of the Jim Crow South (which, strangely, go unmentioned afterward).<\/p>\n
Someone who is unfamiliar with Wilson\u2019s work may very well enjoy \u201cMa Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom.\u201d But for someone like myself, who has seen all but two of Wilson\u2019s plays, the material will feel at best familiar, and at worst, tired.<\/p>\n
Somewhat Recommended<\/b><\/p>\n
Playing through March 17 at Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, IL 60022<\/p>\n