Review: THE PIANO LESSON at A Noise Within

The entirety of the action in August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON unfolds in a single place - a house in Pittsburgh's Hill District, in the mid-1930s. That domicile, home to Doaker Charles, his niece, Berniece and her daughter, Maretha. Doaker is a not-quite-retired railway cook, and his house might as well be a train depot for all the comings and goings. Wilson begins his play with an arrival of a newcomer from the south and concludes it, some three hours later, with a departure. In the meantime, people cycle in and out, several with heads stuffed with big plans – to get married, to start a church, to buy land, to return south, to hop a train. Oh, and not incidentally, this house which they all pass through, happens to be haunted.

Pasadena’s A Noise Within theater company, along with director Gregg T. Daniel, can put another notch in their creative belt as they work through Wilson’s century cycle of 10 plays, each chronicling a decade in the experience of African Americans in the United States. Barely six months since braving Wilson's KING HEDLEY II, the company and director are back an impactful - if leisurely – PIANO LESSON. Where HEDLEY was grim, this one is ghostly, rueful and full of music. Timing being propitious for southland theater goers, ANW’s production arrives just before the Netflix film adaptation which stars Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington who were also seen in the play’s 2022-23 Broadway revival.

In Pasadena, Daniel’s to the manner born company features Alex Morris, Kai A. Ealy, Nija Okoro and Gerald C. Rivers (the latter of whom was also in ANW’s HEDLEY) fronting a winning ensemble. Wilson’s language has a distinct rhythm to it and this material is more difficult than these actors make it look. Major plaudits also to scenic designer Tesshi Nakagawa and lighting designer Brandon Baruch whose mood-establishing décor and aura give this production its eerie bonafides. This production is a family drama, certainly, but also a ghost story.

Ealy plays Boy Willie, every inch a man with a plan. Returning to Pittsburgh from Mississipppi for the first time in three years, he’s looking to purchase the land his ancestors once worked as slaves from the brother of the newly deceased land owner, Sutter. Along with his wingman Lymon (Evan Lewis Smith), Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh in a malfunctioning truck (possibly stolen) piled high with watermelons (possibly stolen). Once sold, these watermelons will provide him a portion of the cash needed to get the deed. The sale of the family’s piano will make up the rest. Except Boy Willie’s older sister, Berniece (Okoro) won’t sell it. The piano is carved with the faces of the Charles's ancestors, and has changed hands and been at the center of theft, death and a possible curse. It’s at once an embodiment of the Charles family legacy and potentially the very item holding Boy Willie back from moving his life forward.

We later meet Avery (Jernard Burks), a preacher trying to start his church and marry Berniece, Doaker’s brother Wining Boy (Rivers), a musician and gambler well past his prime and Grace (LeShay Tomlinson Boyce) a local woman romanced both by Lymon and Boy Willie. Once Boy Willie arrives, Berniece and Maretha start seeing ghosts, who Berniece is convinced is the ghost of Sutter.

The various strands of THE PIANO LESSON come together in what is a prototypical Wilson tapestry – old men sitting around a table sharing stories and songs; younger men and women taking tentative steps toward romance and certainly Boy Willie and Berniece’s loggerheads over the fate of the Charles piano which serves as the plot engine. Working with three hours of stage time, and in no rush, Daniel meshes these disparate elements together smoothly enough. At times his production is prone to rambling, while at other instances, the urgency ramps up. Carrying the play’s central female role, a strong woman surrounded by mostly weaker men, Okoro gives Berniece a quiet ferocity and sensuality. 

Music, as the title suggests, plays no small role in these proceedings and the production’s music director Maritri Garrett makes sure that the company are hitting the right notes. Whether it’s uncle and niece trading off “Chopsticks” and a simple boogie-woogie or Boy Willie, Lymon, Wining Boy and Doaker cutting loose on a work song, it’s all joyous.

As engaging and colorful as Wilson’s Charles family collectively is, THE PIANO LESSON will go no further than the actor playing Boy Willie will take it. Ealy is neither big nor physically imposing, but in his hands, you get the idea that his motor is always engaged, that the man can’t wait to meet his destiny, that he’ll go further than grifting or hawking watermelons to get himself ahead. Smith’s sweetly dim Lymon partners him winningly. Thanks to the efforts of Costume Designer Alethia R. Moore-Del Monaco, Lymon looks awfully dapper in that purple suit Wining Boy is looking to pawn. 

Nakagawa and Baruch make that two-level Charles household  a ghostly, sometimes hellish glow, fit for the reckoning that is coming to close out the play. Some spirits are to be confronted, others left alone. Daniel's production faces them all with strength and tenderness alike. 

THE PIANO LESSON continues through Nov. 10 at 3352 E Foothill Blvd., Pasadena.

Photo of Kai A. Ealy and Alex Morris by Craig Schwartz 

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