THE PIANO LESSON
The centerpiece of this story is a piano, which is the legacy of the Charles family. Back before the Civil War, some of the Charles family, who were slaves in Mississippi, were traded for the piano. And the father, who was kept behind, was told by his master to ornament the woodwork on the piano. So he carved the legs like a totem pole with the images of his lost family. Much later, after the Emancipation, the sculptor’s three grandsons stole the piano. There was a reprisal, and one of the brothers was burned alive, but the other two got away with the piano. Worse luck for four black hoboes who, although unaware of the theft, were murdered for good measure. Berniece and Boy Willie, the children of the murdered brother, inherited the piano. Berniece took it with her when she moved north to Pittsburgh, and this is where The Piano Lesson takes place, in 1936.
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Sure, acting has something to do with it, and this cast is terrific. Charles Dutton (as Boy Willie) is the powerhouse, talking a mile a minute and goosing any scene that needs a prop broken or a conversation hurried along. S. Epatha Merkerson plays the hardening but not hardened Berniece, as immovable in her convictions as a piano without casters. Paul Butler and Lou Myers play the two brothers (Doaker and Wining Boy, respectively)–who helped steal the piano in the first place. Mostly I recall Butler’s subtlety in expressing Doaker’s tacit guilt over surviving the piano heist, and the less subtle way that Myers, as Wining Boy, would sit at the kitchen table, knees apart, feet together, conning the world around to his point of view. And Rocky Carroll (as Lymon, Boy Willie’s sidekick), with his charm and his crisp and shyly confident gestures, is simply a joy to watch. There are a few others in supporting roles, but the point I want to make is less about individual performances than of the excellence of the ensemble. These actors fit together naturally like the family and friends they portray. More than that, they resurrect a people and their history.
