Photo of Ronald L. Conner, Allen D. Edge, Brian Weddington, Tyla Abercrumbie, and A.C. Smith by Michael Brosilow.
Get to know the characters of The Piano Lesson and read a detailed synopsis of the play.
Characters
Bernice: 35; mother to Maretha; in mourning for her husband, who died three years ago (played by Tyla Abercrumbie)
Boy Willie: 30; Berniece’s brother; boyish and brash, talkative and crude (played by Ronald L. Conner)
Avery: 38; an ambitious, aspiring preacher; moved to Pittsburgh from the South and wants to get Berniece to marry him (played by Allen D. Edge)
Grace: A young woman who catches the eyes of Boy Willie and Lymon when they’re out on the town (played by Alexis J. Rogers)
Doaker: 47; Berniece and Boy Willie’s uncle who is “retired from the world”; he works as a railroad cook and lives with Berniece and Maretha (played by A.C. Smith)
Lymon: 29; Boy Willie’s business partner; less talkative, but possesses a disarming candor (played by Brian Weddington)
Wining Boy: 56; Doaker’s older brother; a washed-up pianist who has problems with drinking and gambling (played by Alfred H. Wilson)
Maretha: 11; Berniece’s daughter (played by Chica Gray and M. Alettie Smith)
Boy Willie arrives at the Charles house with Lymon in the middle of the night, hollering to be let inside. His uncle Doaker tells him to be quiet since Berniece and Maretha are still asleep. Boy Willie and Lymon have been driving for days from Mississippi to Pittsburgh in a truck full of watermelons they intend to sell.
Berniece enters and learns that a white enslaver named Sutter has died. Boy Willie and Lymon hope to buy his land. Boy Willie wants to sell the family’s intricately carved upright piano to do so. Berniece’s suitor, Avery, also hopes to sell the piano, but to help him start a church. Berniece has refused to sell. Just as Boy Willie says he’ll sell it anyway, Berniece screams. She has seen Sutter’s ghost at the top of the stairs, calling Boy Willie’s name. Boy Willie says that if Berniece won’t sell the piano, he’ll cut it in half and sell his half.
Three days later, Wining Boy is drinking with Doaker as Boy Willie and Lymon enter. The audience learns that while Lymon, Boy Willie, and Berniece’s husband Crawley were serving a prison term at Parchman Farm, they stole some wood to sell it. As white men ran them off, Crawley was killed, and Lymon was shot. He has been on the run ever since.
Doaker explains the history of the family piano: The Sutter family owned the Charles family. Sutter’s grandfather sold Doaker’s father and grandmother in order to buy his wife a piano. When his wife missed them, Sutter asked Berniece’s father to carve their entire family’s likeness into the piano. Years later, Berniece’s father stole the piano and was later lynched.
The men try to assess the piano’s weight when Doaker hears Sutter’s ghost. Berniece tells them to stop. She says, “Money can’t buy what that piano cost.” She lashes out at Boy Willie and accuses him of being the reason her husband is dead. Maretha screams upstairs — she has also seen Sutter’s ghost.
Wining Boy needs money, but Doaker refuses to give him any. They speak about Sutter’s ghost. Boy Willie and Lymon enter excitedly after selling more watermelons than expected. Wining Boy sells a silk suit to Lymon and then they all exit to hit the town.
Avery wants Berniece to marry him; having a wife would legitimize him as a preacher. She refuses. He says she’s been hanging onto Crawley’s death and carrying the family’s burdens, and that he will return with his Bible to rid the house of Sutter’s ghost.
Berniece prevents Boy Willie from sleeping with Grace (a woman he met out on the town) on the couch because Maretha is asleep upstairs. They exit, and Lymon enters. He and Berniece talk about finding the right people. Lymon offers her some perfume. They share a surprise kiss.
The next morning, Boy Willie tells Lymon that he’s convinced a white man who buys instruments to purchase the piano. They decide to move the piano out of the house themselves to avoid the $25 moving fee. However, the piano won’t budge. Doaker warns them not to sell the piano without Berniece’s permission. Boy Willie exits, saying he’s coming back with tools, and he’ll give Berniece half of the money when he sells it.
Boy Willie prepares to move the piano. He and Berniece get into a fight about Black people’s place in the world — Berniece says they’re living at the bottom of life, and Boy Willie insists her parents would have whupped her if they’d heard her talking like that. Avery arrives, prepared to bless the house. Lymon arrives with the truck to move the piano. Berniece fetches her late husband’s gun to stop Boy Willie.
A very drunk Wining Boy enters and starts playing the piano. He then spreads his body over it to prevent it from being taken. Avery begins blessing the house. Suddenly, Sutter’s ghost seizes Boy Willie and begins wrestling with him. Boy Willie finally admits, “Berniece, I can’t do it.” She calls upon her ancestors for help through song, and a peace falls over the house.
The Piano Lesson is set in 1936, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during The Great Depression. The play takes place in the kitchen and parlor of Doaker Charles’s home, where he lives with his niece Berniece and her daughter Maretha.
Place in the August Wilson Century Cycle
The Piano Lesson is the fourth play chronologically in August Wilson’s Century Cycle, taking place in the 1930s. It was written in 1987 and produced at Court Theatre in 2009.
A Note for Teachers
This play features strong language, including racial slurs, and references to lynching. Please prepare students accordingly.
