Nick's Place

Nicholas Barnard Ma Rainey Response 4/17/2001

I do not have a personal connection to August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as I did to Joe Turner's Come and Gone for me. In some ways Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a conundrum to me. I understand the pains and struggles that Levee goes through and in someways worry that I will encounter them myself - I believe that these are many of the fears of many young and growing artists. What I don't understand is the total and entire desperation that Levee feels and the fact that he metaphorically kills the tradition that is holding him down. Tradition is how new ideas are defined within the existing culture. To have characters acting as metaphors is an interesting and definitely very artistic choice that Wilson has made. But to have characters only act as metaphors denies their representation of real people. Perhaps this is why this play is most often understood and described as a blues jam session.

What I do love about Wilson's writing is that his characters have a metaphorical connection to their instrument. It provides an excellent auditory and visual reinforcement of their characters. Levee and the Trumpet, the striving wild member. Toledo and the Piano, the center of the group and the musical and metaphorical bedrock. Slow Drag and the Bass, the slow but intelligent and interesting member. Wilson's intelligent, but deceptively simple short hand to establish and create an innate understanding of the characters just by placing them on stage with their instrument.

What is also interesting is his metaphorical use of the stage to emphasize the character's status. While the elevation that each group of characters sits on is metaphorically interesting, what I thought was most interesting was the new door that Levee found. While it most definitely represents an opportunity, it represents and uncertainty. Wilson establishes that the door is opportunity, but purposely decides not to describe to the audience where it goes. Just like opportunity the door is an uncertain future. We ultimately learn that this door opens slowly, too slowly for the impatient Levee. Whereas he wants the door to open fully and completely very quickly it only opens to tease him, as shown by Sturdyvant only offering five dollars a piece for each of Levee's song, thus the door exists to taunt and annoy Levee, it exists, but goes nowhere for him.

The blues were something that I was not brought up into or with but I have a deep and heartfelt appreciation for them. While I was brought up with theatre, this play remains distant to me but like the blues I have a heartfelt appreciation for them.