August Wilson's Award-Winning Drama

Lili-Anne Brown directs Round House's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the award-winning 1982 drama written by Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American playwright August Wilson. A poignant meditation on race relations, art, and exploitation, as well as the civil rights struggle, this hard-hitting classic is not to be missed this season.

What Is The Story?

Set in Chicago at the height of the American Blues revolution, the story follows Mother of the Blues Ma Rainey's band members as they gather in a studio and wait for the icon to arrive. Cutler, Toledo, Levee, and Slow Drag shoot the breeze, joke, and tell stories, but tension soon takes over when the group starts fighting. Things escalate when Rainey arrives with ignorant white producers Sturdyvant and Irvin.