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"THEY ALWAYS BE PROUD FOR WHAT

THEY DONE"

Maria de Fátima Pais

Essay on the play "Ma Rainey´s Black Bottom" by

August Wilson
August /October 2000 Author: Mª de
Fátima Pais
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Introduction

Playwright August Wilson´s first commercial endeavour, ´

Ma Rainey´s Black Bottom `, was more than a financial
success. It was nominated for three Tony Awards in 1986,
had a very successful run on Broadway, has been presented
by numerous secondary drama venues and brought many
issues of Black America to the stage in a manner that is
true to the experience and honours the personalities of the
past.
When the play opened, the cast was made up of relatively
unknown players and a playwright looking for his first
success. All being neophytes, they brought together a
production that has true social value.
The story revolves around the Blues legend, Gertrude
´Ma`Rainey. Her career began at the turn of the century
and included fame and fortune as one of the first of unique
sub-class of American society: Blues musicians. Ma is
counted among the best of the genre in that area, including
Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
The title of the play is taken from a song written and
performed by Ma Rainey, which was based on a dance -type
movement (in the same category as a ´shimmy`1that was
her signature move and was included in all her
performances).

1-Setting

The play is set in Chicago in 1927.That was the height of

the "Harlem Renaissance" era when the Black culture was
becoming firmly established as a separate, but far from
equal, entity.
The play focuses on Gertrude ´Ma`Rainey, one of the first of
the great Blues singers. The Blues had been a black
phenomenon for two decades at the point where this story
takes place. It was a major component of the club scenes
within the Black culture, as well as it was extremely
important to rural culture. The troops of singers and players
would ´go on the road` to any small juke joint or empty
room in a vacant barn to perform the music that was
singularly the story of the Black culture. ´Ma` has been on

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shine
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the road and has graciously condescended to spend the day

at the studio, "cutting a side".
Ma Rainey was the Queen of the Blues scene at the time
the play takes place. Loved and adored by the people, she
was just an irritation to the white record company that was
producing her albums. However she was the star, the
money maker and, as such, had every right "to lord it over"
the white gentleman in the booth.
The action of the play takes place in a recording studio,
with the band in a lower room, walled off by a glass
partition from the record company employees and
management. This scene is a graphic metaphor for the
society outside the walls as well. The white man "boss" sits
in his comfortable chair up above the black "folks" who
work for him. It is his show, but he doesn´t have the power.
´Ma` sets the stage, dominates it and is in control, as much
control as there is. She is an earthy woman, by her
demeanour and her language, who is every inch aware of
her importance in the scenario of the lives of these people
and she plays it to the hilt . She IS the Queen and her
costume reflects her regal standing. Even for rehearsals she
wears the full regalia of her office: sequins and satin, so
much gold around her neck that the audience wonders how
she can keep her head up and the classic headband that
was her "signature". She arrives, as all the stars do, with an
entourage consisting of a nephew she has promised could
sing the intro, her white manager and the comely Dussie
Mae, her female lover.
The band is there before Ma, as is the white owner/producer
in the booth above. The studio is crowded , the actors
restless as she takes her time in getting situated and ready
to work. She manipulates the power structure in a blatant
manner that sets the feeling for the play by having
everyone wait while the producer sends someone to "fetch
her a coke". There is an aura of smouldering rage that wells
around the opening dialogue as the characters are
introduced and personalities set one against the other.
Sturdyvant is the white owner of the recording studio and
the producer of the record, a man immersed in his own self-
importance and superiority who is irritated almost beyond
control by the manipulations that Ma puts him through.
Irvin is Ma Rainey´s white agent, who is a milquetoast of a
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man and is obviously there because of his ability to fawn

over the Queen.
Cutler is the expert, the organizer who is in charge of the
band and also plays the guitar and the trombone. Toledo is
the piano player who lives for the chance to read and doesn
´t have a problem telling anyone what he is reading and
why others should read it as well. Slow Drag in the "bassy"-
the bass player who is slow moving but extremely talented.
The "most" minor characters are: Sylvester, Ma Rainey´s
brawny, stuttering nephew who is an impediment to the
orchestration of the session and the white policeman who is
the obvious candidate to represent "the white system".
Levee is the pivotal personality in the play, a man
smouldering in hatred and rage, obsessed with ambition
and always challenging the power structure. In many ways ,
Levee represents the undercurrent of pent-up frustration
and rage that was fermenting outside in the black
community itself. The "Jim Crow" world of the 20´s
demanded that blacks "kowtow" to the whites in order to
survive while they were developing a culture rich in
potential but unable to fully access the talent and
intelligence that will free the spirit.
Dussie Mae is Ma Rainey´s beautiful girlfriend, over whom
she and Levee have a conflict that starts as a small matter
of flirtatious behaviour but expands to represent, for Levee
at least, the emasculation of the black male by the general
society and by the women in the black culture who actually
hold the power. He is immensely offended at the concept
that he is ´not needed` as a black man. He is jealous of Ma
´s fame , her talent and of the idea that she was where she
needed to be at the time she needed to be there, or simply
the fact she was able to take advantage of opportunities he
believes he deserves as well but has not had in his life and
career. Dussie Mae represents all the inequity he feels he
has been made to accept, but does not deserve.

2-Previous Action

The history of the characters plays an important role in the

dynamics of this play. ´Ma` brings with her the history of
the development of the Blues as a cultural phenomenon as
well as the road it takes to become a ´star` in a white world
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when that person is poor, black and a woman. She knows

she has talent and perseverance because she has "paid
the dues" necessary to get to that small studio booth with
that particular group of people. She is arrogant in her
comfortableness with the role of star, but she is also a
woman who has lived the experiences that brought her to
"the Blues" in the beginning.
Gertrude ´Ma` Rainey was born very poor in the late 1800`s
and started living the life ´on the road` at fourteen, doing
vaudeville and travelling with the Blues troops throughout
the rural South. At the time of the play, she is middle-aged
(late thirties), not an exceptionally good-looking woman
and, although at the peak of her career, she is feeling the
hands of time tick for herself and the music. Her past
"brushes with the law" become important as the story
enfolds, bringing to the fore the lifestyle that many of the
´stars` followed. The underlying message is that she has
lived a hard life and she is:
a) going to take advantage of her fame and
b) you damn well better not get in her way.
Levee, as the opponent in the central conflict, brings a
history that justifies and implements his rage. His mother
was raped by a gang of white thugs when he was younger
and he has not been able to progress past the anger he felt
at a society that allows such abuse and the fact that he was
powerless to help her. The intermingling of personal and
societal repercussions and reasoning is overwhelming for
him. He is angry at himself, at the world and its inherent
inequality, at the Blacks who refuse to see the situation and
those who refuse to do anything to bring about change.
The band is made up of a few players that form a core
studio band that has worked together and has worked with
Ma before. Levee is a back-up player who does not share as
extensive a history as the others, doesn´t know the music
as well and is, too, caught up in his own ego and ambition
to be able to recognize these factors and so is frustrated
and feeling pressure to perform, which, unfortunately,
brings out a short temper and a retreat into behaviour non-
conducive to the smooth running of the session.

3-Dialogue
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The focus of the dialogue is on Ma Rainey. She is a strong,

powerful woman who will not take any back talk from who
she thinks of as minor players. She will tell them "where to
go" in no uncertain terms, how to get there and how fast
they had better go. She has a full range of the street
vernacular and uses the most descriptive of expletives to
communicate her thoughts and wishes. She is ´raunchy`,
´brassy` and earthy` and it is her dialogue that defines her
thusly. The woman can swear , and does. There is a give
and take in most of the less prominent dialogue that is
situated just beyond the borders of banter. Especially if
Levee is involved, even when he is trying to be casual and
conversant there is an edge that is offensive because it is
so underhanded, or seems to be.
The play relies heavily upon conversation and story-telling.
Each of the players has a story and the combination of the
stories leads to a complete picture of the black experience
in the early part of the twentieth century. The dialogue uses
a rhythm of intensity and relief that allows for the audience
to become involved through empathy and interest that
builds in the tension. The interjection of conflict between Ma
Rainey and Sturdyvant adds a sub-plot to the character of
the dialogue that mirrors both the Black attitude concerning
"the man" and the racism of the white man living off the
labours of the blacks he would prefer not to have contact
with. Ma is almost but not entirely insulting and
condescending while Sturdyvant is oblivious on a conscious
level, even though his irritation shows he recognizes the
intent on a sub-conscious level.

4- Desires

Most of the players in the drama are there to play music,

put in a day´s work and go home. They want the session to
move along in a reasonable fashion and then leave to
resume the daily activities of their lives. Sturdyvant , as
well, wants more than anything to get the music on tape so
as to finish with the woman who upsets him. His other, and
most compelling desire, however , is to make money. That
is the bottom line, the motivation for his presence and the
reason why he sits in the booth. He is not involved in the
music or the culture that produces it, nor does he care
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about the people and the issues involved. They are

musicians first and people last to him.
For Ma this is one more act in the power play where she is
star, writer and producer. These are her days and she wants
to take full advantage of them. She wishes to bask in the
limelight and to have a feeling of control over the
circumstances of her life.
All of her behaviour points to her need to feel important
and, if not loved, at least adored and pampered. Levee also
wants to have control, which provides the major conflict. He
sees himself as the best person there and, as such, feels he
should be the director. He wants recognition for his talent
and for the struggles he feels he has had to endure during
his lifetime. He aspires to have his own band some day-
playing a newer, dance-friendly style of music and he wants
restitution for the rape of his mother and the discrimination
he faces everyday. These how and when, though , are so
ephemeral that they are beyond hope and/ or
understanding.
Cutler wants order and calm, feels that it is his
responsibility to maintain direction and purpose but has not
been able to follow through on those responsibilities. Dussie
Mae wants attention and the feeling of importance that is
meant to go ´ being with` a famous person. She basks in
the attention she gets from Levee simply because it focuses
on her and what she feels is her best attribute- her beauty.
The stuttering nephew wants to be a star and feels he has
an opportunity ´to make it` that he is not taking advantage
of and may not have the talent to accomplish.

5- Intention

The main issue of the play is the interaction of the players

as seen as a microcosm of society in general, the tensions
and the problems that assault a black person in a world
dominated by whites.
August Wilson provides a shared base of music and work
environment setting that includes the white audience even
while it serves as an example of the subtle discriminations
and the pressures of the not so subtle racism that confronts
one fourth of the population. The secondary issue is
concerned with the transference of the past into an
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understanding of the present. The underlying conflicts of

the play finally erupt in an act of violence where one black
man attacks another, from a sense of desperation that is as
relevant to the youth of today as it was to the characters in
the play. Not necessarily the situations but the emotional
content and frustration at lack of control are issues that are
abundant in today´s American society. Violence increases
and Wilson provides insight into many of the components
that bring that violence out into the world.
Through the auspices of the genre of the Blues, Wilson has
attempted to educate the audience concerning issues
pertinent to the Black culture and experience. The most
blatant of these is the inequality and condescending
attitude that is seen toward the black performers by the
white management. The allegory of southern plantation
owner and slave is somewhat reinforced by Ma Rainey´s
insistence that whites are incapable of understanding the
Blues. Whites cannot fully understand an experience they
are incapable of living fully. However, through the
endeavours of people such as August Wilson, there is a
possibility that an understanding and empathy can develop
through which the society may heal the wounds that racism
has caused and stop the violence that results. Such was
surely the intention of the author.

Conclusion

Because of its ending the play is considered a tragedy. The

lack of actual physical action requires that the play rely on
story -telling and character development to move it to the
conclusion. The interplay between the characters acts
towards this goal and is successful in building tension so
that the end is not surprising, but contains an element of
shock. Levee, by taking his aggressions on an innocent
party, and one that is also black, when his anger stems
from his feelings towards whites, is sufficient to cause the
audience to stop and consider the implications of the act
and the underlying meaning of the play.

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Bibliography
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Work cited: Wilson, August ,Ma Rainey´s Black Bottom: A Play

in Two Acts ,New American Library, New York, 1985

-Elkins, Marilyn (ed.), August Wilson: a casebook, Garland

reference library of the humanities; vol.1626, 1994

-Shannon, D. Sandra, The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson,

Howard University Press, Washington,1995

-Harrington, Joan, "I ain´t sorry for nothing i done"-August

Wilson´s Process of Playwriting, Limelight Editions, New York,
1998

-Pereira, Kim, August Wilson and the African-American

Odyssey, University of Illianois Press, 1995

-Nadel, Alan (ed.),May All Your Fences Have Gates- Essays on

the Drama of August Wilson, University of Iowa Press, 1994

This is an original document. It may however be used

for teaching purposes.