Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

By August Wilson. Directed by Dominic Cooke.

The cast is led by Sharon D Clarke as Ma Rainey, and also includes Clint Dyer, O-T Fagbenle, Tunji Lucas, Lucian Msamati and Giles Terera.

Chicago, 1927. In a recording studio on the city's South Side, a battle of wills is raging.

Ma Rainey, Mother of the Blues, uses every trick in the book to fight her record producers for control of her music.

Hardened by years of ill-treatment and bad deals, she's determined that 'Black Bottom', the song that bears her name, will be recorded her way. But Levee, the band's swaggering young trumpet player, plans to catapult the band into the jazz age. His ambition puts them all in danger.

Inspired by the real-life Blues legend and infused with her music, August Wilson's play speaks powerfully of a struggle for self-determination against overwhelming odds.