Tonight's opening of 'Sweet Mama Stringbean' at City Hall Theatre marks the return of Woodie King's National Touring Circuit to the Bermuda Festival stage.

With actress Sandra Reaves-Phillips starring in the title role of Ethel Waters, the production explores the inner conflicts of the late legendary performer of stage, screen and television.

Ms Waters was a superstar in the 1920s, and one of the most popular black entertainers of that time.

The National Touring Circuit production is described as a play which delves, in a non-realist style, into the conflict between Ms Waters' sense of religious alienation, and her driving ambition to succeed and excel in entertainment, as she progressed from vaudeville to the legitimate stage, the silver screen, and television.

The play promises to be a riveting experience for festival-goers as it explores the inner conflicts which Miss Waters faced – from her upbringing in the red light district of Chester, Pennsylvania, through all the ups and downs of her life and award-winning career, to her final years with evangelist Billy Graham.

Raised in a violent, impoverished home, and married at the age of 13, the future singer left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel, working for a lowly $4.75 a week.

Attending a party in 1913 was a turning point. There, Miss Waters sang two songs which so impressed her audience that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, earning $10 a week.

From there she began touring on the black vaudeville circuit, where she was billed as 'Sweet Mama Stringbean', from which this production takes its title. Hard times followed, however, including a disastrous relationship after she moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

Later, she moved to Harlem, New York, and around 1919 became part of the Harlem Renaissance.

By 1921, female blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in America, and Miss Waters also became a recording artist, first with the Black Seal Label and then with Columbia Records, with which she made many of her most famous recordings.

In fact, in 1998 she was posthumously awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame award for her first recording with Columbia.

The singer continued touring with a number of groups in the 1920s, eventually earning the unheard-of salary of $1,250 in 1928. A year later she recorded what became her signature tune, 'Am I Blue?'

As Miss Waters' career continued to flourish, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer.

Film and stage performances followed. Later she starred at the famed Cotton Club, and became the first black woman to perform in the Broadway show, 'As Thousands Cheer'.

In time, she garnered important accolades for her work, among them a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the film 'Pinky', and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for her role in the play 'The Member of the Wedding'. She also starred in the television series 'Beulah'.

Miss Waters wrote her autobiography, 'His Eye is on the Sparrow', with Charles Samuels in 1950/51. It was later adapted as a stage production.

She spent her final years occasionally performing.

Reconciliation with her religious beliefs and yearnings eventually brought her to the Billy Graham spiritual and religious crusade, with which she toured and became the first female vocalist to perform.

She died in California in 1977.

'Sweet Mama Stringbean' is directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke and choreographed by Mickey Davidson.

It features powerful renditions of songs made popular by Miss Waters, including 'Just a Closer Walk with Thee' and 'His Eye is on the Sparrow'.

Curtain time is 8 p.m. each evening.

¦ For ticket information see www.bermudafestival.org or www.bdatix.bm. Alternatively, telephone 232-2255 or visit BDATIX ticket centres: the iStore, 46 Reid Street, Hamilton (open Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), and Fabulous Fashions, Heron Bay Plaza, Southampton (open Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.).