‘The Piano Lesson’ Faithfully Adapts August Wilsons Work
The Piano Lesson opens on the Fourth of July in Mississippi, in 1911. Fireworks light up the landscape in stuttering flashes while three brothers haul a piano out of a large house, and are soon persecuted for the "theft." This piano is an heirloom of the Charles family – of which the three brothers are from – and the subject of the disagreements and strife that unfold in the film.
Malcolm Washington's directorial debut is an adaptation of its namesake 1987 August Wilson play, which takes place 25 years after the opening scene. Boy Willie (John David Washington) has returned home to his uncle Doaker (Samuel L Jackson) and sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) intent on selling the piano to buy land off James Sutter – the man who enslaved his great-grandfather and recently died from a fall down a well. Great-grandfather Charles carved his wife and son – Doaker's father – into the piano along with other Charles family members, and his intricate work was claimed by Sutter. For this reason, Berniece is adamant about keeping the piano as a reminder of their family history and also claims she's witnessed Sutter's ghost upon Boy Willie's return. The siblings' division is the central conflict of the film, which situates itself in Charles's home.
As an adaptation, The Piano Lesson is pillared by its actors. The ensemble cast all deliver deeply felt performances to paint a portrait of a family divided by disagreement, but also bound by love. In one scene, Boy Willie argues with Berniece as she brushes her daughter's hair with a hot comb while Doaker lightly admonishes them as he sits outside on the porch. The familiarity and frustration of family are captured beautifully through domestic scenes like this. Berniece is terrified of confronting the past and refuses to play the piano as she once did for her mother. On the other hand, Boy Willie wants to build a new future and disparages the "sentimentality" of her keeping a piano she won't touch. "Land, land'll last you forever son," he recalls his father telling him. Deadwyler's quietly raging Berniece carries more emotional heft than Washington's scenery-chewing Boy Willie, but both actors are at the top of their game. They act as foils of one another and as their tension escalates, so do the ghostly occurrences in their house.
The directing is striking, the camera leaves space for its actors but also takes unique perspectives to emphasize tension. The scenes with Sutter's ghost are suspenseful and sharp, capturing his shadowed figure and the trickle of water on the floorboards. One of the best shots in the film comes during an argument between Boy Willie and Berniece; The siblings' yells are dulled, and the camera pans from below on Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith) watching her mother and uncle argue from the balcony. There's a presence behind her, and as she turns, she screams at the sight of Sutter's ghost. This paralyzing intergenerational haunting is compellingly captured, if sometimes discordant with the larger film.
The Piano Lesson ultimately struggles with the same plights that normally befall play-to-film adaptations, its emotional thrust weakened by creative choices. The film version implements flashbacks as characters speak, providing visual context for the stories they weave but taking us sharply out of the present. It is through Doaker's soliloquies that we learn of the piano's storied past; He and his two brothers Wining Boy (Michael Potts) and Boy Willie's father Boy Charles hauled it out of Sutter's house on the Fourth of July. Boy Charles fled after but was tracked down to a train car by Sutter and his allies and burned alive inside. His death is the root of unresolved resentment between the children and their uncles, who emerged unscathed.But viewers don't get to see this resentment in pure form or get to see Doaker's face in full as he delivers the story of his brother's death.
Even still, there is very little intimacy lost, and many flashbacks serve as vivid memories – particularly one of Berniece and her deceased husband Crawley (Matrell Smith). Viewers are directly invited into the interior life of the Charles family and enveloped in their grappling with legacy and grief. Though the story is better off as a play, The Piano Lesson is a great adaptation to reintroduce August Wilson’s work to a new generation. A formidable cast – one mostly lifted from the play’s 2022 Broadway revival – and inspired direction breathe life into a still-relevant tale and preserve it in film.
