Word: pianos
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...Piano Lesson, play-wright August Wilson once again explores the rich dramatic territory of family resentment, memory and loss. It is a moving, haunted drama that travels from sadness to comedy with deftness and elegance. From a solid first act to a second act which approaches genius, Wilson combines a dazzling lyricism with a world-weary awareness of the unfair lot of Blacks in America--the same combination that won him a Pulitzer Prize as well as a Tony for his last outing, 1987's Fences...
...Huntington production is staged intelligently and sensitively by Wilson's longtime collaborator, Yale Repertory Director Lloyd Richards. The Piano Lesson, however, lacks cohesion. Wilson's material, as rich and compelling as it is, is too far-flung and perhaps too ambitious...
DUTTON'S ENTRANCE at the beginning of Act 1 is vigorous and spectacular, and his energy never flags. Boy Willie and Berneice soon embark on a bitter struggle over a family heirloom, an ornately carved piano that dominates the sitting room of Doaker's simple house. The piano was carved by their great-grandfather and was traded for their great-grandmother during slavery days...
From the very first, Boy Wille keeps at Berneice. He wants to sell "his half" of the piano to buy some land, since "land's the only thing God ain't making more of." But Berneice wants to cling to her family heritage and never to forget the struggles that came along with the piano. As brother and sister struggle over the piano, Wilson brings out the conflict between wanting to remember old grudges and assimilating with whites, who are "hard to figure out sometimes...
This proclivity towards the effusive is Wilson's biggest problem and it culminates in an illconceived and startling ending. The ghosts which haunt the past of the characters in The Piano Lesson literally come to life in a hocus-pocus scene which is badly out of step with the simple poetry of the production. Wilson seems to believe so fiercely in the powers of imagination that he is ultimately trapped by them. He's a visionary, poetic playwright and at times his vision seems to over-whelm...