When Richard Corley took the reins as the new artistic director of the Madison Repertory Theatre he was shocked that the company had performed only one August Wilson play-the Pulitzer Prize-winning \Fences."" In his first season, Corley has done us all a favor by bringing ""The Piano Lesson,"" Wilson's other Pulitzer Prize-winning play, to Madison. Set in 1930s Pittsburgh, ""The Piano Lesson"" is fourth in Wilson's ambitious sequence of plays that examine African-American life in each decade of the 20th Century.
Although the characters in the play are three or four generations removed from slavery, in many ways, the play is preoccupied with forms of ongoing slavery, symbolized by the priceless family heirloom-an imposing yet elegant piano-that sets up the conflict.
As the play opens, Boy Willie (Domani Singleton), a Mississippi sharecropper, arrives unexpectedly at his sister Berniece's (Ann Joseph) house in Pittsburgh. He plans to sell the piano he co-owns with Berniece so he can buy the land their ancestors toiled on, thus gaining an economic foothold.
The reunion begins on a tense note, however, as Berniece steadfastly refuses to sell the piano, which is hand-carved with the images of their ancestors who were sold for it. Although the piano conjures up ghosts of the past that haunt the household-sometimes literally-Berniece has such an intense emotional connection to it, and the suffering it represents, that she can't part with it.
At first, Boy Willie seems like an antagonist by threatening to sell the piano. Later, however, Wilson provides him with passionate speeches that resonate truth. Wilson eschews easy solutions, providing instead psychologically complex characters. Through Berniece and Boy Willie's arguments, the play masterfully wrestles with questions of how we balance the past and future, the role of legacy and what we should hold on to and what we need to let go of just to keep going.
The stellar cast is filled out with Berniece's uncle, Doaker (D.J. Howard), who she shares the house with. He provides stability by acting as a referee while Berniece and Boy Willie's sibling feud escalates. Ronnel Taylor plays Lymon, Boy Willie's simple, womanizing friend who has come with him to escape the law and to look for work in the North. Cedric Young's Winning Boy-who helped Doaker steal the piano from its previous owner,with tragic consequences-has great stage presence as he looks back on his life as a traveling musician. As Doaker, the play's storyteller, recalls the history of the piano and the lives of their ancestors, tracking the familial relationships can be confusing. Happily, one needs only a tenuous grasp of who's related to who to appreciate and enjoy the play's power.
The entire cast is superb, but Domani Singleton's charming and manic Boy Willie steals the show. As he bounces around the stage, filled with urgency and passion, Singleton provides many of the play's comic moments, and there are more than a few.
Although the play runs for three hours, director Leah C. Gardiner keeps the pacing brisk while nailing many of the play's smaller, delightful moments. There is a gripping scene where the men slip, almost unconsciously, into an impromptu African spiritual hymn as they gather around the kitchen table. The song's polyrhythms and energy are goose bump inducing. It is a moment where the power of theater, and the past, feels very real indeed.
Also undeniably powerful, though a tad too neat, is the supernaturally tinged climax. After holding our attention for three hours, it seems like Wilson wraps everything up slightly too abruptly, somewhat dodging the complexity he built into his characters. The conclusion, though, is ultimately satisfying, rounding out this exceptional play.
The Rep's assured staging of ""The Piano Lesson"" shows that Wilson's play reverberates beyond the African-American experience to carry weight on a universal level. ""The Piano Lesson"" makes a case for grouping August Wilson with such master playwrights as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. Anyone who cares about theater should see this play.
