The second half of the film zooms in on Levee’s foil, Ma. The band joins her to record in the main studio, but the session is halted before it even begins. Ma’s one request? A cold drink of Coca Cola. She causes a fuss and says she won’t record unless she has one, even though it’s difficult to understand why she’s being so provocative.

Eventually, she vocalises her true feelings to Cutler. “They don’t care nothing about me, they just want my voice. And I learnt that. They’re going to treat me how I want to be treated,” she says. We see just how much she’s been jaded enough times to know how to work in the music industry. Wilson’s plays often force you to question how you feel about characters when they’re first introduced to you – and this was definitely the case for me here. A sense of overwhelming sadness came over me. Just like Levee is, Ma is misunderstood. She’s not reckless but rather she’s calculated and practical.

Back in the rehearsal space, the conversation moves on to a discussion about what’s worse: life or death? It’s incredibly moving knowing what we know now. Boseman had been dealing with colon cancer but kept it secret from those on set. Having since passed, what he says while performing as Levee in this scene is only the more poignant. “Now death, death’s got some style,” he says. “Death will kick your ass and make you wish you’d never been born. That’s how bad death is. Life ain’t nothing.”

The band move back into the recording studio and successfully record the song they’d spent so long working on. But straight after, Levee’s hopes of becoming the star he’s always wanted to be are stopped. Ma’s manager, Irvin, doesn’t think his music is what people want to hear. His dreams shattered and anger growing, Levee takes out a knife he has on him and in the heat of the moment, he tragically kills Toledo.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom review: Chadwick Boseman’s last performance is just as moving as you’d expect