Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Themes of race and religion are filtered through a hot, sweaty recording session
with the Mother of the Blues in 1927 Chicago.
Viola Davis
First things
first: the black bottom is a dance that took its name from Jelly Roll Morton’s
‘Black Bottom Stomp’. This, in turn, derived its moniker from the Black Bottom neighbourhood
of Detroit. So, no sniggering then. And Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom is the name of the 1982 play by August Wilson, as
part of the playwright’s Pittsburgh Cycle. Of those ten plays, Fences was another, which was brought to
the screen just four years ago, with Viola Davis and Denzel Washington in the
leads and Denzel behind the camera. Here, the latter takes on producing duties
and has cast Davis as the formidable Ma Rainey, one of the very first blues
singers whose voice was preserved on recorded disc. She became known as the
Mother of the Blues and Bessie Smith was a pupil (and a lover, according to
some reports). She was a big woman and flaunted her new-found wealth with a get-up
of jewels that she wore in her ears and her teeth, round her neck, on her
hands, and with a tiara to top it all off. She certainly knew the value of her
voice – and her appeal. Here, Denzel has recruited George C. Wolfe to helm, a
director with two Tony awards on his CV.
By the play’s
very nature – covering one long recording session on a hot summer’s day in
Chicago – Wolfe’s adaptation remains a theatrical, stagey experience. But with
such powerhouses as Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman on board, it’s a riveting
watch. Looking painfully thin from his advanced colon cancer, Boseman
nevertheless gives the trumpet player Levee Green his all. Levee’s monologue on
the rape of his mother by “eight or nine mans” is a genuine showstopper. “She’s
standing there frying that chicken,” he recalls, with gut-wrenching pain, “when
them mans come and took a hold of her just like you take hold of a mule and
make it do what you want.” In the even showier role of Ma Rainey, Viola Davis
is truly transformed: a formidable, petite giantess with gold teeth and a
heaving cleavage. A law unto herself, she brooks no messin’ from nobody, be
they male or white. She will have her way. The hum of Oscar recognition is
already taking wing, Davis locking horns with Andra Day as another legend of
the blues in Lee Daniels’ The United
States vs. Billie Holiday. Described by jazz historians as “a kindly and
much loved employer,” Ma Rainey is painted in starker colours by August Wilson,
who offers us a redoubtable diva who won’t sing a note until she’s been
supplied with three bottles of Coca Cola. You wouldn’t want to mess with this
version of Ma Rainey, heaving bosom, bottom and all. It’s a barnstorming turn
from Ms Davis, who is all but unrecognisable. The music, too, is a tantalising pleasure.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn
Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Jeremy
Shamos, Dusan Brown, Joshua Harto, Quinn VanAntwerp.
Dir George C. Wolfe, Pro Denzel Washington, Todd Black and Dany
Wolf, Screenplay Ruben
Santiago-Hudson, Ph Tobias
Schliessler, Pro Des Mark Ricker, Ed Andrew Mondshein, Music Branford Marsalis, Costumes Ann Roth, Sound Paul Urmson.
Escape Artists/Mundy Lane Entertainment-Netflix.
94 mins. USA. 2020. Rel: 18 December 2020. Available on Netfix. Cert. 15.