August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Yale Repertory Theatre

Chicago, 1927. Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of a blistering recording session as the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey, and her ambitious trumpeter, Levee, are caught in a fiery battle of wills over control of her music exposing the emotional and economic exploitation faced by Black artists in America. An exploration of dreams deferred, cultural identity, and the power of the blues, August Wilson’s electrifying masterpiece, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, returns in a brand-new production more than 40 years after it first raised the roof of the American theater in its world premiere at Yale Rep.