|
Liverpool
Everyman and Playhouse present August Wilson’s highly acclaimed
play – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – at the Playhouse
Theatre between 28 May and 19 June 2004.
 |
| Louis
Emerick as Toledo |
This
production marks Gemma Bodinetz’s inaugural directing project
at the Liverpool Playhouse, since her appointment as Artistic Director
for the Theatres in September 2003.
Chicago
in 1927: a wild and lawless time where you keep out of Al Capone's
way while listening to Louis Armstrong. Prohibition-era speakeasies
dispense illicit hooch and rip-roaring jazz.
In a
downtown studio a bunch of musicians practice their riffs, while
blues chanteuse Ma Rainey takes her own sweet time.
As
they wait, they talk of love, life and creative differences. And,
in wildcat trumpeter Levee's cast, the burning desire to change
the world with his music.
 |
| Chipo
Chung as Dussie May |
August
Wilson is one of America's greatest living dramatists. This piece
of total theatre “Floats on the same authentic artistry as
the blues music it celebrates. Harrowing as Ma Rainey's is, it is
also funny, salty, carnal and lyrical” (New York Times).
The
cast for this production is Melanie La Barrie, Nicholas Beveney,
Chipo Chung, Alan Cooke, Ewen Cummins, Louis Emerick, Cornelius
Macarthy, Vincent Marzello, Barry McCormick and Paul Regan.
|
