The Piano Lesson

Set in 1936, this was New African Grove Theatre Company's second production of an August Wilson play.  It opened July 9th, 2010 and was directed by Synthia Williams.

The play was inspired by Romare Bearden's painting Piano Lesson and focuses upon the relationship between the Charles siblings, Berniece and Boy Willie, who clash over whether or not their family's piano should be sold. In the mid-nineteenth century, when the Charles family was enslaved, two members of the family were sold by their owners, the Sutters, for a piano. Subsequently, a master-carpenter in the Charles family was ordered by the Sutters to carve the faces of the sold slaves into the piano. He did that and more: he carved the family's entire history into the piano. The instrument was later stolen by Berniece and Boy Willie's father, who was then killed by the Sutters in retribution.

The play explores African Americans' relationship to family history, particularly to the history of their slave ancestors. While Wilson's cycle of plays is set during the twentieth century, all of his plays explore the legacy of slavery and the roots of American racism. his play is as concerned with the Ante-bellum period as it is with America during the Great Depression.

Wilson presents the Charles' different attitudes towards their family history in a naturalistic style: the dialogue accurately reflects everyday dialect, and the action is interwoven with scenes of people preparing meals, hot-combing hair, and bathing. The play's central metaphor, the piano, dominates this structure, while Wilson's inclusion of ghosts and spirits demonstrates his diverse cultural and literary influences. Although a few critics were critical of his mixing of styles and traditions, the majority applauded his imaginative fusion of African, American, and African-American traditions.

The Piano Lesson won Wilson his second Pulitzer Prize and confirmed his status as one of America's most important and innovative living playwrights.