The truck he rode up on belongs to cousin Lymon (a holy innocent, in Ray Fisher’s appealing performance), although ownership seems to be a wobbly concept in this family.īoy Willie is on a mission. Even Maretha dutifully does her homework.Ī human hurricane blasts through this quiet household when Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie (a whirling dervish of a performance from John David Washington), makes a surprise visit from back home in Sunflower, 1,800 miles away. Berniece cleans house for a white family that seems to value her. A man who adheres to the principle of family stability, he shares this weathered stronghold with his niece, Berniece (an endearing soul, as played by Danielle Brooks) and her young daughter, Maretha (a role played at alternate performances by Jurnee Swan and Nadia Daniel).ĭoaker is a pensioned railroad cook whose periodic arias to his treasured profession (“Now, I’ll tell you something about the railroad”) are delivered by Jackson with the rapturous passion of a religious convert.
Jackson, who is married to the director), the current patriarch, owns his own home - a true measure of success in this era. Doaker Charles (a rock-solid performance from Samuel L. In 1936, when “Piano Lesson” is set, the Charles family appears to have survived the worst of the Depression. The starry new Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “ The Piano Lesson” has a whole houseful of ghosts.ĭirector LaTanya Richardson Jackson emphasizes - indeed, embellishes - the spooky parts of the story, which is the fourth chapter (and one of the most popular) in Wilson’s interlocking 10-play series, “The Pittsburgh Cycle.” In this formidable undertaking, Wilson tracks the Black experience across each decade of the 20th century.
Every family has a skeleton or two in its closet.
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