In the latest stage of Denzel Washington’s career, canonizing the work of August Wilson appears to be of great importance. Washington himself directed and starred in the 2016 adaptation of Fences, while drafting stage director George C. Wolfe to direct the 2020 film version of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, on which he was a producer. For The Piano Lesson, he’s just a producer once again, but it’s more of a family affair. His daughter, Katia Washington, is another credited producer. His son, John David Washington, is the film’s star. Most importantly, his other son, Malcolm Washington, is the movie’s director. Malcolm Washington may be the first filmmaker in this era of Wilson adaptations to direct the playwright’s words to its full cinematic potential, embracing the level of myth that Wilson offers his audience.
Taking place in Pittsburgh, The Piano Lesson concerns the Charles family in the 1930s. They’ve lived through several generations of tragedy, and with the Depression in full swing, they don’t have high hopes of rising out of it. Boy Willie (John David Washington) rolls into town with his childhood friend, Lymon (Ray Fisher), in a truck filled with watermelon. He has a plan to raise money so he can buy some land. Part of the plan involves selling the watermelon. Another part involves visiting his sister, Berniece (a fantastic Danielle Deadwyler), and convincing her to sell the family piano. Berniece lives with her young daughter, Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith), and her uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson). They’re all pleased enough to see Boy Willie arrive early in the morning but they’re equally braced for whatever new scheme he’s planning.
Boy Willie isn’t the only visitor. There’s also Doaker’s brother, Wining Boy (Michael Potts), a musician from Kansas City, who visits after his estranged wife passes. Having all these members of the Charles family under one roof raises some tension. When Boy Willie mentions selling the piano for an opportunity to buy land, everyone warns him that Berniece will have none of it. And sure enough, she refuses. This is the catalyst to several arguments throughout the film. It’s not merely a piano, but a family crest, built during the days of slavery and owned by the white slave owners who possessed previous generations of the Charles family. The story goes: Doaker and Wining Boy’s grandfather carved images of their family into the piano, and decades later, Doaker, Wining Boy, and Boy Charles (Stephen James) stole the piano back, taking with it all the history and pain that it holds.
Boy Charles was Berniece and Boy Willie’s father, and he was killed not long after he and his brothers stole the piano. The Piano Lesson takes place twenty-five years after that, as the piano continues to play a vital role in their lives. Berniece used to play prolifically, mostly to make their bereaved mother happy. These days, she won’t touch it, preferring to let Maretha play the keys. Boy Willie wants to free his family of their tragic legacy, and getting money for the piano feels like killing two birds with one stone: ridding himself of the reminder of his family’s pain while getting the chance to own property and possibly build himself out of second-class citizenship. But Berniece sees the piano as the last connection to those they’ve lost, a tenuous hold on the past. With her brother’s return, she feels a twinge of the supernatural, which only strengthens her belief that the piano must stay.
The Piano Lesson is a ghost story, and sometimes the ghosts are good and sometimes the ghosts are bad. Sometimes they take the form of Sutter, a descendant of their white owners, coming to raise havoc. Sometimes they take the form of the family members immortalized in the woodwork of the piano. There are many ghosts they don’t see, including Crawley (Matrell Smith), Maretha’s father killed after trying to protect Boy Willie and Lyman. Berniece blames Boy Willie for what happened to the love of her life. Boy Willie protests his innocence, but the weight of Crawley’s death is heavy just the same. At times it’s hard for any of them to know if the piano is keeping the ghosts at bay or inviting them in. It’s a stand-in for trauma, sure, but it’s also a symbol for excellence, hard work, familial connection. That brother and sister can’t decide what’s worth sacrificing in the name of self-sufficiency is the film’s central drama.
August Wilson was a contemporary of Toni Morrison, and The Piano Lesson shares a lot of themes and symbols with her masterpiece novel, Beloved. Both were originally produced in 1987, and both use spirituality and the metaphysical to express the depth and complication of African American pain. Morrison’s vision is mournful, tinged with sensuality. Wilson is a constant battle between blinding rage and crippling fear. Older characters like Doaker and Wining Boy feel defeated, while Berniece and Boy Willie are almost burdened by their negligible hope. They’ve lived atrocity but they’ve heard even worse, the torments of slavery an existential horror brought to life by the first person accounts of their ancestors. In the same way that the piano protects them from strife, it also conjures a past that’s as clear as if they lived it.
Danielle Deadwyler’s Berniece is the film’s emotional center and unexpected heroine. If The Piano Lesson colors Boy Willie’s brashness over time, it only strengthens her nobility. Play adaptations struggle when there’s as many monologues as Wilson likes to write, but Malcolm Washington understands the beats of cinema. Sure, he opens up the setting, but he also gives his actors space to shine, and none shine brighter than Deadwyler whose strong but bereaved Berniece guides the film to its supremely effective conclusion. John David Washington recalls his legendary father but still finds a blistering originality to his portrayal of Boy Willie. Jackson, Potts, and Corey Hawkins as a preacher named Avery, all give substantial supporting performances that give vibrancy and heart to this powerful ensemble.
Along with Ma Rainey, The Piano Lesson is one the best movies that Netflix has produced, one that contains the power of the movies but has the conversational tempo to complement the streaming platform. They’ve shown good taste as a distributor, even if nearly all the filmmakers that take their money eventually regret the lack of a real theatrical release. But their own production work has mostly resulted in underbaked slop (which, I hate to say, mostly stars Adam Sandler). August Wilson and The Piano Lesson is a neater fit that can still uphold their prestige aspirations. It’s also just a fantastic film in its own right, with incredible performances and moving story that crosses generations while mostly taking place in a single home. It’s ambitious, disguised as stripped down, and to date, the most accomplished August Wilson film that I have ever seen.
Directed by Malcolm Washington