The Piano Lesson (review)

 

Spoilers ahoy!

I bow to few in my admiration of August Wilson, who seems in my eyes to be America's William Shakespeare (just as Shakespeare seems to me Tudor England's August Wilson).

The Piano Lesson is the latest production by A Noise Within, part of their ongoing to stage every single one of Wilson's "Century Cycle." It centers around a piano jointly owned by a pair of siblings--Boy William (Kai A. Ealy) and his sister Berniece (Nija Okoro).  That piano is the center of the story, equal parts Sauron's Ring and Excalibur, an intrinsic part of this family's history for better, for worse as well as all points in between. Berniece lives in Pittsburgh with her daughter Maretha (Madison Keffer) and their uncle Doaker (Alex Morris).  In this house in 1930s Pittsburg stands The Piano--and the lesson it will teach will shape the lives of every single member of this family.  It all begins when Boy William arrives with his friend Lymon (Evan Lewis Smith).  The former has PLANS.  A man down south where Boy William works as a farmer died.  A man named Sutter has died under some strange circumstances.  Sutter's family owned this family way back before the Civil War.  What happened next is part of their family lore, tied up with The Piano.  But Sutter's heirs say they will sell Sutter's land to Boy William--the land where his ancestors literally slaved away for years--if he can meet the price.

He needs to sell that piano, and even considering for one moment that he needs Berniece's permission is Not Something He Wants To Do.  Not an evil or a particularly cruel person, certainly neither lazy nor stupid, he remains as narrow minded as a horse wearing blinders.  When the rest of his family starts seeing the ghost of Sutter, he gets angry anyone even listens to them.  He gets angry when anyone questions him, insisting if they do they are stupid.  Nor can he stand it when people thwart him in any way, point out anything he has ever done wrong (however slightly).  

Berniece stands firm about The Piano, and for a time we simply don't know if her choice is wise or not.  The Piano looms over events, people and history.  She is a skilled piano player but refuses to play it, noting how much of her family's blood has literally soaked into that wood.  Nor has she forgotten the part her brother and his friend had in her own brother's death.  In Wilson's plays, men often betray women and refuse to face even a hint of responsibility.  

All this culminates as Boy William attempts to simply take The Piano exactly as Berniece's suitor the Reverend Avery Brown (Jernard Burks) arrives to attempt an exorcism of the house, to banish the ghost of the (perhaps) murdered Sutter.  What happens next proves equal parts complex and powerful.  Yet again Wilson surprised me (by now I'm not often surprised by stories) as he nearly always does.  The most difficult part of the play, I believe this production only threaded the bare minimum of needles to make the climax work.  But, it does work.  Myth and ritual blend with what I can only call the most naturalistic of poetry in wood and deed.  With its elements of horror, The Piano Lesson might well have spiraled into a deep tragedy.  I expected as much. 

This is why I call Wilson America's Shakespeare.  He gives us in words a wide array of characters and situations which seem to show the whole range of humanity, over and over again.  With good actors like these, the individual character become living avatars of ideas, of archetypes, of habits as well as choices and yes, lessons.  For this play, that is even in the name.  The Truth emerges just as it did in Ancient Greece in festivals dedicated to Dionysus, or in the Middle Ages as glimpses of the Divine made manifest in mystery plays.  Wilson along with these performers, matched by designers and others in a collective ritual called Theatre give us a glimpse behind the curtain of the mundane, the ordinary.  A play literally calling itself a Lesson should reveal.  This one does.  A lot.  Enough to chill the blood and warm the soul.  No small feat.

The Piano Lesson plays Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm until November 10, 2024 at A Noise Within 3352 E Foothill Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91107.

King Hedley II (review)

 Spoilers ahoy!  

Curiously, I have never seen a bad production of any play written by the late August Wilson.  Not sure why.  But it remains a lovely detail in my life in theatre--which I may have just cursed by mentioning it.

King Hedley II, like the vast majority of his "American Cycle," takes place in the Hill District of Wilson's native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This one takes place squarely in the 1980s, when Reagan was President and White  Capitalist America was feeling especially good about itself while African America struggled.  One part of that struggle hinged (and hinges) upon identity.  Part of that in turn, and I would argue is a major theme in this play, is the effort to learn what it is to be a Man--man as in hero, man as in King, man as in father and son and husband and worker and warrior, avenger, wise man, judge, prophet, and the heir of all the generations past as well as present.  It emerges as a profoundly Sophoclean work, winding together the day to day and the mythic into a tragedy which somehow feels triumphant.

Our central character is literally named King Hedley (Aaron Jennings) who seeks to navigate the many roles to which he was born.  His best friend is simply known as Mister (Christian Henley) who remains loyal but frankly lacks King's vision and discipline.  His wife Tonya (Kacie Rogers) struggles to endure her fear of where his pride might lead him, amid many other terrors as she confronts have another child when she sees the world as a hungry jungle she herself only barely survives.  Likewise we have Ruby (Veralyn Jones) who is King's mother, although who did not raise him--a fact she deeply regrets, not least because she doesn't really know how to be his mother now.  Adding to the cauldron are Elmore (Ben Cain) Ruby's former beau, a skilled and charming con man eager to reconnect with her, plus Stool Pigeon (Gerald Rivers), a next-door-neighbor given to visions and dream like insights into the world.  A bit of a prophet is Stool Pigeon, a divine fool.  Capital D.  Capital F.

But all that barely scratches the surface of these characters, all of whom keep revealing amazing insights and facets on a scale truly vast.  In fact one of the sure signs of how very fine these performances--and how excellent the direction by Gregg T. Daniel--shows in how every character constantly keeps us guessing.  I never knew precisely what would happen from any of them.  Each word, gesture, and deed startled, yet also in retrospect seemed obvious, even perfect.  Wilson deserves plenty of credit for that, but the words of the dramatist remain dead without the actors breathing life into them.

Which this cast does.  Often delivering long, heart-rending monologues to one another, portraying the shape and timbre of their lives out of a very real need.  Shakespeare has such speeches, but only sometimes to they sum up entire lives as so many in this play do.  Imagine if you will modern versions of "To be or not to be" plus "What is a Jew" and "She should have died hereafter" plus at least half a dozen more.  Add to that something Biblical and Mythic enacted before our eyes, echoing within our ears, striking deep into our very hearts.

King Hedley wants to be great.  But what does that mean?  Everyone wants to tell him precisely what to do, and most just come out and tell him.  Most complain about how he never seems to listen, yet that soon proves just wrong.  He listens.  He often makes mistakes.  He learns and tries to grow.  He also succeeds far more than one expects or hopes for, but not in any simple way.

Life is rarely simple.  Greatness even more so.  That includes great theatre, like this magnificent experience.

King Hedley II plays until April 28, 2024 with performances at 7:30pm on some Thursdays (April 11 and 25), 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays, 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays at A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107.