August Wilson's The Piano Lesson at Detroit Repertory Theatre

Directed by Janai Lashon

It is 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wants to sell a piano that has great importance to his family, but he shares ownership with his sister Berniece, and the piano sits in her living room. Berniece has already rejected several offers, because the antique piano is covered with beautiful carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie argues that the past is past, but Berniece proves to be more formidable than he anticipated.

The Piano Lesson is the fourth installment of the American Century Cycle, following African American life experiences, decade by decade.

Winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

“Like other Wilson plays, it seems to sing even when it is talking.” –The New York Times

This play has one fifteen minute intermission.