Set in Chicago in 1927, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom deals with issues of race, art, religion and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers.

The play is part of August Wilson's Century Cycle, his epic dramatisation of the African American experience in the twentieth century.

This edition includes a Foreword by Frank Rich.

'It was hard to watch Ma Rainey without thinking of Eugene O'Neill's Iceman Cometh. The plays are both marked by claustrophobia, a slow-fuse dramatic structure, meaty arias, a devastating dramatic payoff and their authors' profound identification with those who are betrayed by the gaudy promise of the American dream' Frank Rich, from his Foreword