The piano on the set of was not a mere prop. It could be played and the cast members often did. It was adorned with pictures of the Washington family and their ancestors. It was, John David Washington jokes, āNo. 1 on the call sheet.ā
āWe tried to haunt the piano itself, to charge it with that kind of spirit,ā says Malcolm Washington, the filmās director and John Davidās brother.
In āThe Piano Lesson,ā August Wilsonās 1987 play, the piano is a central symbol of heritage, the past and survival. In 1930s Pittsburgh, it sits, unplayed, in the home of Berniece Charles ( ), having been passed down as a family heirloom from the days of slavery. But Bereniceās visiting brother, Boy Willie ( ), wants to sell it to buy the Mississippi land upon which their ancestors once toiled as slaves.
āThe Piano Lesson,ā which is currently playing in theaters and debuts Friday on Netflix, is an impassioned family drama but it is also a profound ghost story. For the Charles family, wrangling over the piano is a reckoning with their familyās past, and the legacy of slavery. At its bone-rattling crescendo, itās an exorcism.
āItās an exorcism and a possession,ā says Deadwyler. āYouāre releasing the thing that never worked and inviting in the thing that was always present but you might not have known.ā
Adapting āThe Piano Lesson,ā a play about ancestors and heritage, was fittingly a work of family. Itās the third in a sterling string of Wilson adaptations produced by following and But itās the first Washington mostly left to his family to make.
āCostanza, Augustās widow, came to me I donāt know how many years ago and asked me to shepherd these plays. I said, āIām the man for the job,ā" Washington said an interview alongside producer Todd Black. "So Iāve been more of an administrator. I read the play a couple times to think about how can we get this made, is this a movie? In this case, a week or so into shooting, I was like, āThereās nothing for me to do. This kid knows what heās doing. Heās done his homework. Iām just hanging around.āā
If Denzel Washington has been moved to carry on the tradition of Wilson by a sense of legacy, itās something he passes down in āThe Piano Lesson.ā The film marks 33, who also co-wrote the script with Virgil Williams.
John David Washington, the and star, made his Wilson debut in a 2022 Broadway production of āThe Piano Lesson,ā playing Boy Willie. That production also featured Samuel L. Jackson, who originated the role of Boy Willie in 1987 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, playing Berniece and Boy Willie's uncle, Doaker Charles, a role he carries over in the film.
āYou have all these great artists playing these notes ā you have the OGs, the Wilsonians, playing it,ā says John David. āThen you have the newcomers playing it. You start jamming together and you find it together.ā
In Wilson, there's no greater musicality than the language, the blues poetry of Wilson's slang-drenched rhythms. The brash, fast-talking Boy Willie, in particular, is a verbal force ā one that John David was enthralled by.
āIt feels freaking so good when the truth is coming out and you know the truth is coming out and youāre discovering new meanings in these monologues that you go over and over in your head,ā says John David. āWhen itās happening, itās a beautiful feeling. I live for those moments.ā
For the actors, finding the music of āThe Piano Lessonā meant channeling generations worth of pain and perseverance in Black American life. Much of it they understood instinctually. Some of it they found together.
āBerniece has a massive amount of weight and put on top of that is grief and loss and longing,ā says Deadwyler, āThose are things that have been with me and in women Iāve witnessed all my life. You think about the lives these women have lived and you carry it and you bear it.ā
The cast and filmmakers were also mindful of a legacy of performance they were working in. When during the shoot, Malcolm played a song of his on set. The day before āThe Piano Lessonā played at the Toronto International Film Festival, , who starred in the original production of āFences,ā died.
āI didnāt grow up watching movies. And I didnāt get in the business for movies. I wanted to be James Earl Jones,ā says Denzel. āI was thinking of theater. To be honest with you, when I started, there werenāt a whole lot of Black people for me to be like. We werenāt the leading men.ā
For Denzel, August Wilson became a lifeblood.
āThese are the best roles around," he says. "Everybody wants āem. I want āem.ā
In the film's dramatic third act, when the supernatural enters, Deadwyler could feel presences in the room. This is when āThe Piano Lessonā quakes open with all of the pain and tragedy it has been building toward. The walls ā hung with photos of the actors' own relatives ā shake. Deadwyler, Malcolm says, was gone. She was somewhere else.
āI do recall when the ancestors were coming into the room,ā Deadwyler says. āMy eyes are closed a lot, but people carry energy. And I knew when they came in. The breath shifts.ā
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
