Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, this modern American classic is about family, and the legacy of slavery in America.
August Wilson has already given the American theater such spell-binding plays about the black experience in 20th-century America as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences. In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned perhaps his most haunting and dramatic work.
At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future. But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.
The Sexy Nerd's Review. . .
I’ve seen a couple of August Wilson’s plays, but I never read them. At first, I couldn’t get the rhythm because it is written like a script. Once I got my groove and the characters in check, I was good to go, and I absolutely loved this story.
The Charles family had something passed down through the generations for each of them to have and admire for many years to come. So, why was it that Boy Willie comes to visit his sister, Berniece, in Pittsburgh and decides for the family he’s going to take the piano and sell it so he can buy himself some land down in Mississippi where his family were once slaves. Sure, that may sound ok in theory, but how did he think he could just stop by his sister’s house and take what was rightfully theirs?
Well, Berniece wasn’t having any of that! After all, she had a daughter to think about because it would be hers once she was gone. Being the hot head that Boy Willie was, he took it upon himself to find the original buyer who inquired about it a while ago and sell it to him. His plan was to sell it and give half the money to his sister.
But the funny thing was, no matter how he tried to move that piano, it wouldn’t budge. It must have weighed about 1,000 tons for all he knew. And, not only could he not move the piano, Old Man Sutter, who once owned his grandparents as slaves, came back from the grave to haunt Boy Willie. The history that went with that piano was so incredible, it would not be moved.
This was a short play to read, but so enjoyable. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I recognized many of the landmarks that he so eloquently spoke about. I believe Netflix has licensed this story to turn it into a movie. If it isn’t out yet, I’m looking forward to seeing it in action. The play was so entertaining.
The Sexy Nerd gives The Piano Lesson five more ghosts to oversee the piano for safekeeping. What a way to jump start my Black History Month. If you’ve never had the pleasure of watching one of August Wilson’s plays, I encourage you to read his bodies of work. A true masterpiece. Until next time, Nerds, you know how we do!
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