Lou Bellamy's raucous and masterful production of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" that opened Friday at the Guthrie Theater includes two scenes of intense, thorny silence when America's tortured race history comes screeching through.
In both, the agitated quiet surrounds Levee, the proud, preening rooster of a trumpet player who serves as a dramatic counterpoint to the title character in the August Wilson classic.
In the first scene, Levee, performed with unqualified excellence by James T. Alfred, tells of witnessing, as an 8-year-old, his mother's victimization by a group of white men. He rips open his shirt to reveal the long scar he got from his boyish defense of her honor.
In the second, Levee, who also is a composer, is played for a fool by Sturdyvant (Michael Tezla), the white owner of the recording studio where the drama is set. Levee has written some songs and the owner has taken them, paying Levee $5 for each before leaving. Angry and insulted, the trumpet player crumples the money and throws it on the floor before going after the studio owner. But we hear no sound of conflict after he leaves the room. He returns, contorting with anger and defeat in a doorway as his bandmates look on with "I-told-you-so" expression. That's when he turns on Toledo, the piano man with whom he has sparred. Levee pulls a knife on Toledo, and what follows is a crying tragedy.
Bellamy's staging of this jazz-and-blues-suffused drama unfolds with inspiring lucidity and lyricism.
Actor Jevetta Steele is wondrous as the title character, the mother of the blues who prefers to be called Madame. The character is larger than life, arriving in hullabaloo with an entourage that includes a police officer who is trying to arrest her.
Steele, best known for her singing -- her one sassy, soulful song is worth the "Ma" admission -- shows off powerful dramatic chops . She commands the stage with volatility and danger. Her Ma is more Greek goddess than diva.
Alfred, dressed in red by costume designer Mathew LeFebvre, has the cockiness of a prize fighter with a gift for gab. He bounces around the stage like a Muhammad Ali, ready to rumble. And as he shows us his ambition, we want to root for him.
Bellamy has cast only top-shelf winners in this play, which takes place on Vicki Smith's three-zone set. Wilson veteran Abdul Salaam El Razzac imbues Toledo with sagacity and cool.
Phil Kilbourne depicts Irvin, Ma's white manager, as if he were a water balloon being squeezed between two strong hands. And, in his delivery, he takes the sting out of "boys," which is what he calls the men. Tezla's Sturdyvant is unctuous, but he does not ooze too much oil. He comes across as a cold businessman, profiting from the sounds of suffering that he traps in a box.
James Craven, who plays trombone player Cutler, and William John Hall, who plays bassist Slow Drag, perform in the show the way they do in a band: as strong, solid ensemble players.
Even the smaller roles in "Ma" are notable. Lerea Carter drips eroticism as Dussie Mae, Ma's gorgeously endowed girlfriend, while Ahanti Young's Sylvester, Ma's stuttering nephew, is delivered with touching tenderness in a production that is superlative.
For a Lou Bellamy interview and clips of the show go here.
Rohan Preston� 612-673-4390
Powered By iWebRSS.com
entertainment tonight entertainment weekly media services movies showcase cinemas
No comments:
Post a Comment