Review: Excellence Abounds in Actors' Shakespeare Project's Finely-Tuned Production of AUGUST WILSON'S THE PIANO LESSON

With its magnificent mounting of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” at Hibernian Hall in Nubian Square, Roxbury, through February 23, Actors’ Shakespeare Project is giving Boston theatergoers the first must-see production of 2025.

One of the two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays – the other being 1985’s “Fences” – in Wilson’s towering 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle (also known as his Century Cycle), “The Piano Lesson” is the fourth entry in the cycle. First produced in November 1987 by Yale Repertory Theatre and subsequently by the Huntington Theatre Company in January 1988, the play premiered on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre, in April 1990, with a revival opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in April 2022. A feature film adaptation was released in November of last year.

For the third consecutive season – following stellar productions of “Seven Guitars” and “King Hedley II” – ASP turns to Wilson, this time for “The Piano Lesson,” presented in partnership with Hibernian Hall and Shakespeare & Company. The production is on par with the best that have preceded it thanks to the layered, perfectly paced direction by ASP artistic director Christopher V. Edwards, and a splendid company of actors led by ASP resident artists Omar Robinson as Boy Willie and Jade Guerra as Berniece, the Charles siblings at odds with each other and at the heart of Wilson’s emotionally compelling story.

Set in Pittsburgh in 1936, the drama finds Boy Willie and his young friend Lymon (Anthony T. Goss, an Elliot Norton Award winner for ASP’s “Seven Guitars”) arriving from Mississippi with a truckload of watermelons to sell and plans to enact that Boy Willie believes will set his descendants up for generations. That scheme involves selling the Charles’s antique piano, ornately carved by an enslaved ancestor, and putting the proceeds toward the purchase of the land on which his forebearers worked as slaves. But before he can move the upright out the door to his truck, Boy Willie must face off with Berniece, who owns half of the piano and strongly objects to its being sold.

Berniece and Boy Willie’s emotionally charged relationship began long before their clash over where the piano belongs and what its real value is to their family. Indeed, Boy Willie and Lymon were earlier involved in a theft that resulted in the death of Berniece’s husband, and father to their young daughter, Maretha (Ariel Philips). Aware that his welcome in the house owned by his uncle Doaker Charles (Jonathan Kitt) may be short, Boy Willie uses his every word to make his case.

Robinson’s fast-talking line delivery is a marvel to hear and to witness, especially in his confrontations with Guerra’s equally determined, but far more stalwart Berniece. As the siblings’ determination to prevail deepens, they search their respective knowledge of their family background, only to learn things that will forever haunt each of them.

Standout performances are also given by Goss, whose youthful, trusting Lymon provides just the right countermeasure to Boy Willie, Kitt as the stolid, contemplative Doaker Charles, and “ranney,” who imbues Wining Boy with humor and wisdom. Also fine in smaller roles are Brittani J. McBride as Grace, a brief visitor to the house who pops with calamitous energy, Daniel Rios, Jr., as Avery, a clergyman with an eye for Berniece, and Phillips as the subdued Maretha.

The moment you enter the production’s semi-circular performance space, you are instantly immersed in the world of these characters thanks to scenic designer Jon Savage’s meticulously detailed set, enhanced by Isaac West’s well-chosen props. Costume Designer Nia Safarr Banks adds measurably to the period feel with an array of menswear and women’s attire perfectly suited to each character. Isaak Olson’s lighting and James Cannon’s sound design are spot-on, especially in the play’s ghostly moments.

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