The Piano Lesson is set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1936. A brother and sister are locked in a war over the fate of a family heirloom: a piano carved with the faces of their ancestors. Only by revisiting history can the siblings endeavor to move forward. Directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson, The Piano Lesson is a part of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, which chronicles the Black experience throughout the 20th Century over the course of ten plays.
Between Boy Willie and Berniece, their uncle Doaker plays peacemaker. It's something of a shock here to see Samuel L. Jackson (husband of LaTanya) put aside his alpha-male persona, honed not only in the movies but in that original 1987 production of 'The Piano Lesson,' in which he played Boy Willie. Our memories of those past, very different performances go a long way toward making this Doaker a most effective referee, even though he consistently agrees with his niece. More visceral is the slow onstage collapse delivered by Michael Potts in the role of the dissolute uncle, Wining Boy. By nearly matching the size and intensity of Washington's performance, Potts shows that his character's inebriated present is more likely to be Boy Willie's future than anything represented by the level-headed Doaker.
Jackson savors every morsel of Wilson's glorious language, whether he's outlining a complicated grocery order; ruminating on the wonders of train travel and its dependability in an unreliable world; or ironing a shirt while singing an old railroad song. His characterization as Doaker - the chief living repository of memory for the fractured family, in whose home the play unfolds - is vibrantly inhabited, his every line delivered with a balance of weary experience and wry wisdom.
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