A Slice of Life, Based on Trials, Tribulations of Ike, Tina Turner : Music: The rhythm-and-blues couple was a major force in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. Now there is a play based loosely on their sometimes troubled lives.

The story is well known. In the seminal days of rock ‘n’ roll, a blackbandleader meets, and eventually marries, a young singer who had made her way from rural Tennessee to St. Louis. His considerable writing and production skills teamed with her frantic, sexy performing style, in a scintillating rhythm-and-blues revue.

Twenty years later they were divorced. His career floundered as drug abuse put him in repeated legal trouble. When she made a comeback in the early ‘80s, the story of their troubled marriage, his physical and mental abuse, became commonly known.

In “I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” being presented Thursday through Sunday at Sushi Performance Gallery, Ike and Tina Turner’s story is used as the basis for a fable that salutes the rhythm-and-blues artists whose music inspired rock ‘n’ roll.

The show is presented by Cultural Odyssey, a San Francisco-based performance group, and is performed by Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, who co-wrote the piece with Ed Bullins.

“The piece reflects (Ike and Tina’s) lives, but it’s not their story,” said Ackamoor, who plays Prince Golden. “We’ve taken aspects of their lives and done a lot of supposing. We’re reflecting a lot on our own lives.”

“We play a couple not unlike Ike and Tina,” said Jones, who plays Rita Golden. “It’s based loosely on their lives. As a black woman artist, I feel privileged that they lived and are living because there are so few role models made available to us. They were role models, and we realized we could build a story on these two people.

“Tina has always been a sort of folk hero. We were in Chicago at a talent show a few years ago, and I was amazed at the number of men and women doing Tina imitations. Looking at her again made me realize what an incredible force she’s been on the rock scene.

“We realized it was more important to examine all aspects of their lives. We’re celebrating and investigating an aspect of American music. Everyone knows what happened to Tina Turner. It became important to us to look at his character and examine what happened to him.” The popular belief is that Ike was the evil villain and Tina was the valiant survivor of their coupling. In the stage production, Prince Golden has all of Ike’s faults, but the story explores possible reasons for his downfall.

“The media rap is that Ike was no good, that he didn’t, or doesn’t, have any redeeming qualities,” Ackamoor said. “We try to show the pressures he was under--what it was like for a black, independent businessman at the time. It was such a renegade business. Rock ‘n’ roll came out of the woodwork, and nobody knew it was going to become such a big business. We don’t soft-pedal Ike’s character. We definitely deal with the evil side of him.

“Prince becomes wiser at the end. They have a rendezvous to work out what their relationship is now. He learns that there were things in his character that caused him to blow it.”

“He was clever enough to see she had the ability to move his career along,” Jones said. “They had this great love for each other, but the male privilege raised its head. He has to oppress her because the pressures made him feel he was a small, black man in a big world.”

Some aspects of the portrayals come easily to the on- and off-stage couple. Ackamoor is trained as a musician and Jones is an actress and singer. In the production, the saxophone and vocals are performed live, accompanying recorded music played by Ackamoor’s band, Rock of Edges.

“The music is all original, except for two covers,” Ackamoor said. “And most are written in the vernacular of the period.”

The show is a co-presentation of Sushi and the fledgling African American Museum of Fine Arts. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at Sushi, 852 8th Ave. Tickets are $7 for Sushi members, $10 for others.