The Piano Lesson

Sun-Times: Pulitzer winner cast to perfection in Court’s production

by Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

May 18, 2009 BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic Do not be fooled by its demure title. August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" -- set in an African-American household in Pittsburgh in the 1930s -- is nothing less than a fiery exorcism. Part ghost story, part baptism, part love story, part history lesson and part economics class, the Pulitzer Prize winner is, above all, a tragicomic blues opera in which everyone has at least one grand aria, and the overall weave of clarion voices is a thing wondrous to behold.

Chicago has a long and distinguished history of producing Wilson's plays. And director Ron OJ Parsons' boisterous, musical, richly comic, wonderfully conversational revival for Court Theatre continues that legacy. Impeccably cast, and played with exceptional buoyancy and naturalness, the production exudes a freshness and ease -- a playfulness even -- that sometimes gets lost when staging the work of this master. You don't just watch it; you feel you are living in it. Boy Willie (Ronald Conner, right, with Brian Weddington) is determined to sell an heirloom piano in August Wilson's play.

And Wilson's writing is nothing short of glorious as he spins a tale of family history scarred by slavery. At the center of "The Piano Lesson" is a battle between siblings -- Boy Willie (a powerhouse turn by Ronald Conner), a loud, energetic, chaos-generating young man hellbent on owning his own farm in Mississippi, and his sister, Berniece (the very real and subtle Tyla Abercrumbie), who is still mourning the murder of her husband three years earlier, and is a devoted mother to 12-year-old Maretha (charming M. Alettie Smith).

Berniece lives with her uncle, Doaker (A.C. Smith, an actor of magical powers), a railroad man, and is being courted by a newly ordained minister, Avery (artfully droll Allen D. Edge), when Willie and his sweet pal, Lymon (an utterly beguiling turn by Brian Weddington), arrive at the door with a truck full of watermelons. Willie has a plan and he won't be deterred: He wants Berniece to sell the handsomely carved piano that is their heirloom, and to take his share of the money to buy the land he believes will make him a whole man. But Berniece refuses to let go of the piano so soaked in history and blood -- a piece of furniture that keeps the ghosts of the family's oppressors looming at the top of the stairs.

Moving through the story, too, is Wining Boy (the invariably stellar Alfred H. Wilson), an aging ladies' man and musician, and Willie's sassy party girl, Grace (plucky Alexis J. Rogers).

Faith, freedom, women, whiskey, bursts of song and dance, railroad ruminations, silk suits, tight money (and tight shoes), the ghost of the white man and the possession of one's soul. All this, and larger-than-life characters determined to set themselves free. What more can you ask?