The Piano Lesson
Review
Drama in two acts by August Wilson, produced in 1987 and published in 1990. The play, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990, is part of Wilson’s cycle about African-American life in the 20th century. The action takes place in Pittsburgh in 1936 at the house of a family of African-Americans who have migrated from Mississippi. The conflict centers around a piano that was once traded by the family’s white master for two of the family’s ancestors. Boy Willie and Berniece, the siblings who inherit the piano (carved to show family history), argue about whether or not to sell it. Berniece’s climactic refusal to allow Boy Willie to move the piano exorcises both the literal and figurative ghost of the white slave owner who has been haunting the family. — The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winner. Brother is pitted against sister over the fate of their heirloom piano.
Buy The Piano Lesson at Amazon
Buy The Piano Lesson at Amazon
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September 3rd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, August Wilson’s sensitive story of a family’s struggle to reconcile the past with the present centers around the carved piano which dominates the living room of Doaker Charles and his niece Berniece. The legs of the piano are carved with faces of their slave ancestors, carvings made by a distant relation who was owned by the Sutter family and working on their farm in Mississippi before Emancipation. Berniece’s brother Boy Willie, recently released from a prison farm and penitentiary, has come to Pittsburgh with his friend Lymon, determined to sell this ancient piano in which he claims half-ownership. His arguments with Berniece conjure up the ghost of Sutter, who calls out Boy Willie’s name.
The struggle of Boy Willie and Berniece over possession of the piano gradually broadens as they reveal the past, incorporating vivid pictures of the family’s tenuous survival from slavery to the present. A dozen or more of the white men who have been most abusive over the generations have met their deaths by “falling” into wells, crimes of revenge attributed to the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog. These ghosts are supposedly the ghosts of five black men burned to death in a boxcar by Sutter after his carved piano, the one in Berniece’s living room, was stolen. The most recent Mr. Sutter “fell” into a well and died three weeks ago, and Berniece believes that Boy Willie may have had a hand in his death.
The play’s success rests on the well-developed family relationships and their interactions on stage, as they reflect the legacy of slavery and its aftermath. Berniece wants the piano because the blood of her family has been worked into its wood–it represents her heritage. She and Doaker have learned a whole new culture of survival through their move to the city, but they do not want to forget the past. Boy Willie, by contrast, wants to sell the piano in order to buy land for his future, remarking, “I got to mark my passing on the road. Just like you write on a tree, ‘Boy Willie was here.’” He, however, still focuses on vengeance–righting past wrongs. The tension between these viewpoints provides the drama and, in a powerful concluding scene, conveys the message of this play, ultimately a “piano lesson.” Mary Whipple
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vibrant Characters in His Pittsburgh Cycle
“The Piano Lesson” (1990) by the late August Wilson is part of his ten-play series, the Pittsburg Cycle or the Century Cycle.
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keeping The Historical Memories Alive
Okay, blame it on the recently departed Studs Terkel and his damn interview books. I had just been reading his “The Spectator”, a compilation of some of his interviews of various…
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
August Wilson is the greatest American playwright. Not the greatest living American playwright, but the greatest, period. His best plays stand comparison with the best work of Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. No American playwright has produced such a consistent body of work, and no American playwright has attempted a cycle with the scope and ambition of his series of plays. Wilson’s subject is the Great Migration, the story of the African-Americans who emigrated from the southern states to the cities of the industrial North and their slow construction of satisfactory lives in the difficult and changing world of 20th century America. Wilson has written 10 plays on this subject, one for each decade of the 20th century, amounting to a fictional history of African-Americans in the urban North. This is, however, history from below. Wilson’s heroes are garbagemen, short-order cooks, day laborers, self-taught musicians, and street vendors. One of his great gifts is his ability to use common speech in a way that is consistently interesting, frequently eloquent, and often powerful. He gives poetic voice to people usually regarded as inarticulate and invests ordinary struggles with real but not exaggerated significance. The African-Americans of Wilson’s plays are a doubly uprooted people. Uprooted initially by the grievous trauma of slavery that sundered their connection with their native traditions, the emigrants fleeing the Jim Crow south and its brutal racism are uprooted also from their homes, families, and the traditions developed in the aftermath of slavery.
Wilson’s overall story is the reconstruction of African-American identity and family life in the cities of the North over the course of the 20th century. Wilson’s plays often feature protagonists whose sense of identity and families have been damaged greatly by the oppressions of racism and the atomizing effects of the industrial economy of the North. Over the course of the cycle, Wilson shows characters re-establishing a sense of connection with their ancestors, even back to Africa, and gradually developing the family ties to sustain them. Wilson repeatedly uses supernatural elements in his work, particularly as a device to advance his theme of the importance of developing a sense of historic connection with ancestors, including those originally abducted from Africa. This could easily be hokey, but his matter of fact use of these elements is very effective. Another recurring theme is the importance of music, particularly the Blues tradition developed by African-American musicians, which he sees as a vital and creative force in African-American life, often carrying truths across generations. Some of the most affecting parts of Wilson’s work are his demonstrations of the direct and indirect destructive effects of American racism on family life. Even more powerful are those scenes in which his characters overcome these obstacles to reaffirm family connections.
Not all of Wilson’s plays are outstanding, but all are at least very good. Readers will differ on their favorites. In my opinion, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Fences, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom are outstanding. The rest vary from excellent (The Piano Lession) to the very good. Cumulatively, they are a really impressive achievement. Mention must be made of the fact that Wilson has been aided by outstanding collaborators. Wilson’s plays usually go through a series of versions before the final version emerges. Wilson has had the benefit of working with unusually talented directors, notably the gifted Lloyd Richards, who was responsible in large measure for recognizing Wilson’s talent. Wilson has benefited also from the existence of a whole generation of remarkably talented African-American actors. These people made it possible for Wilson to realize his vision. We have all been the beneficiaries of the work of Wilson and his collaborators.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
A play that has to be seen to be fully appreciated
‘The Piano Lesson’ is a play that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. It’s a must-see for any fan of good theater.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:58 pm
This can be an enjoyable read for anyone. Wilson’s language and dialogue is beautiful. Descriptions of the piano are gorgeous and Wilson does a good job of making an inanimate object seem almost mystical. This is a play that should be read by everyone, regardless of race. It deals with many racial issues, however the main conflict between Boy Willie and Berniece is something that anyone can have an opinion on. I personally thought that both Boy Willie and Berniece had good points and one could sympathize with either of them, but their arguments tend to hide the truth to both of them, and possibly to the audience. The end of the play is a revelation to them both, and can be to the reader as well. Regardless of your background, you will enjoy this play as it deals with the importance of hard work and the betterment of one’s life, contrasted with the significance of history and ancestry – issues that anyone can relate to.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great and Important, but Far From Perfect
As the last living memory of American slavery gives way to the hurlyburly of the Twentieth Century, the Charles family piano straddles the line between the two.
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece of American theater
August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” presents the African-American experience in the twentieth century. In my opinion, “The Piano Lesson” is the best of the lot.
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Piano Lesson
Acclaimed playwright, August Wilson, pens The Piano Lesson, a story of a family living in Pittsburgh whose family ancestry traces back to slavery in the South.
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
4.0 out of 5 stars
you can’t sell your soul for money
Part of Wilson’s century long tetra-cycle about African-Americans in Pittsburgh, this play is set in 1937.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
August Wilson’s Piano Lesson
This play is indeed a classic in African-American literature. Every high school and college student of every race should be encouraged to read and discuss the brilliant family…
September 4th, 2009 at 1:11 am
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Piano Lesson
This book by August Wilson is a good description of the Black movement to the North in the early 20th century.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:31 am
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great play.
This is the best of August Wilson.
Great dialogue/speeches, intense relationships and characters, sibling rivalry (as metaphor for embracing one’s history or using…
October 28th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Cool Post Keep up the good work!
Sandy x