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The inspiration that powered the historic collaboration among playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards at the Yale Repertory Theatre continues to live on in the New Haven theatre as evidenced by the gripping revival of Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" now on view now via February 19 around the venue's mainstage.
"The Piano Lesson" had its planet premiere in New Haven in 1987, marking the fourth collaboration between the playwright as well as the Rep's former artistic director, Richards, following the success of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and the Pultizer Prize winning "Fences." "The Piano Lesson" would also go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and grow to be the third Wilson play to open on Broadway. It really is component of Wilson's mammoth cycle depicting African-American life in each and every decade from the twentieth century, largely through the experiences of residents of Pittsburgh's Hill District. Six from the cycle's ten plays had their globe premieres at Yale Rep, a run that ended with all the final play within the series, "Radio Golf," in 2005, shortly prior to Wilson's death. "The Piano Lesson" is Wilson's paean to the 1930's, in the height from the Great Migration, when hundreds of thousands of African-Americans left the south for what they anticipated were far greener pastures up north. As a result, there was a steady stream of traffic, as households would scrape together adequate money to join already-settled relatives in their new houses.
"The Piano Lesson" remains one particular of Wilson's richest and dramatically exciting works, completely captured here in director Liesl Tommy's outstanding production. As she did in final season's enthralling production of "Eclipsed," Tommy demonstrates her ability to help her cast deliver unique and captivating performances while sustaining interest and preserving a genuine air of suspense all through. Though Wilson's plays can contain multiple scenes of in depth, yet extremely precise and precise colloquial dialogue, Tommy makes positive that they contribute towards the improvement of each character and boost, instead of hinder, the play's forward-moving dynamic.
Wilson was always adept at using dialogue to reveal the complex, often contradictory, layers of every of his characters. With "The Piano Lesson," he has created eight such characters and under Tommy's guidance, the cast leaves indelible impressions upon the audience. The performances here seem more subtle and less blunt than inside the 1987 original production, which was nonetheless stunning and brilliant in its own right. But Tommy's approach operates just fine right here, introducing us slowly and convincingly towards the demons that haunt the two main characters, the brother and sister, Boy Willie and Berniece, whose ancestors had been once slaves inside the south and who frequently continued to work for their former masters inside the years past Reconstruction.
The point of contention is a baby grand piano that sits in Berniece's living room, an instrument that Berniece has refused to play since the death of her husband three years earlier. The piano is the oddest sort of family heirloom: it had been traded back and forth as part of transactions involving a number of Berniece's and Boy Willie's slave ancestors, literally bearing the marks on the slave trade, for one particular of their grandparents had added a set of carefully-detailed woodcarvings towards the instrument depicting moments within the family's ancestry from Africa for the United States.
Boy Willie, on a trip up from the South where he may or may not have killed a descendant of the family's former slavemasters, wants to sell the piano to purchase some land in Mississippi which he thinks will provide him with respect and a steady income. Berniece, however, wants to hold on the piano for all of its connections for the family's past and the struggles they endured. Not only does the piano hold family ghosts, but Boy Willie may have brought a single of his own, the ghost of man he may have pushed down a well, which family members swear to have seen in Berniece's Pittsburgh home. Before the play is through, Berniece and Boy Willie will need to grapple with their own histories, and Boy Willie will have to face his anger and resentments.
Tommy has assembled an outstanding cast that infuses the work with humanity and passion, especially LeRoy McClain's stubborn and impatient Boy Willie. Whether he's dreaming of new angles or pacing in exasperation, McClain's Boy Willie demands watching, always tightly coiled yet ready to rage over years of frustration. This is not a blustery performance, as was the original Boy Willie, the masterful Charles S. Dutton, but more tiger-like inside the way a formidable force can sneak up on you. Eisa Davis, who also created the original music for this production, initially comes across as quiet, poised and determined, with the full capacity of her ferocity slowly revealing itself as the play progresses. The actress can convey a natural gentleness in dealing with her daughter and the wise uncle with whom she lives, and reveals a warm, yearning side in a humorous, nearly heart-breaking scene with the na??ve young man who has accompanied her brother on this trip.
Keith Randolph Smith tends to make a lasting impression as Doaker, Berniece's railroading uncle who often serves as the play's voice of reason. His Doaker is one from the community's strong men who are looked to with respect and trust by others and Smith warmly projects this honor and integrity. Charlie Hudson III is delightful as Lymon, the Southern country boy experiencing a northern city for the first time, eager with anticipation yet easy to be duped by city slickers ready to pounce. Hudson projects an endearing quality, even as he's trying to learn pick-up lines or primping up inside the most ill-fitting orange zoot suit.
Charles Weldon is Wining Boy, a singer-entertainer who's just returned from a long jaunt in St. Louis, who spurs the boys within the cast into singing not only some popular tunes of the day but spurring fond recollections on the some of spirituals that once nourished their days down south. Tyrone Mitchell Henderson is funny and touching as Avery, the tall, thin minister-to-be, who's been courting Berniece and has been the subject of some generally good-natured ridicule by some of her relatives. Joniece Abbott-Pratt acquits herself quite well in her two short scenes as a young Hill District party girl looking for a good time, although Malenky Welsh, who charmed us earlier this season inside the world premiere of "Bossa Nova" at Yale Rep, is sweet and charismatic as Berniece's daughter.
Dede M. Ayite's well-conceived set depicts the two main rooms of Berniece's home, parlor and kitchen, with a long, tall staircase to the unseen bedrooms dominating the rear from the stage, against a backdrop on the streets from the Hill District, circa 1936. Jennifer Salim's costumes offer a remarkable contrasts in style, from the practical working class clothes of Berniece and her uncle, the field garb of Boy Willie and pal Lymon, the fanciful suits in the aging crooner Wining Boy, the near-pretentious garb of preacher Avery, and pseudo-nightlife wear of Grace and Lymon (that orange suit). Alan C. Edwards' lighting accommodates pre-dawn philosophizing, late night partying and middle of the night terrors, saving up some surprises for the climactic battle against demons real and imagined. Junghoon Pi's sound design makes us aware in the busy community just outside the home, when the Hill was a community in its cultural and social prime.
It's good to see August Wilson fitting in nice and comfortably in his former home at Yale Rep. This production of "The Piano Lesson" is a excellent way to get introduced or re-introduced to the work of a man who will be remembered as one particular of this country's most interesting and valued playwrights. This may encourage Yale Rep to bring those few functions by Wilson that did not initially premiere here to New Haven to assist give us a fuller picture of this playwright's output. Incidentally, Hartford Stage does plan to stage Wilson's "Gem on the Ocean" later this season, which takes place in the first decade on the Twentieth Century.
For more information about and to order tickets for "The Piano Lesson," call 203.432.1234 or visit The run concludes on February 19.
