The Piano Lesson is multi-themed. As a realistic domestic drama, it presents a sister and brother at odds about the purpose of a piano they own. The drama is a historical one, too, highlighting the piano as representing their family history. Also, a a ghost story is intertwined with a mystery. August Wilson’s complex plotting and often poetic language enhance each theme. Westcoast Black Theater Troupe meets the challenge of presenting every facet of the play. Authoritative Henri Watkins as Doaker owns the Pittsburgh house where his widowed niece Beatrice (direct, judicious Noelle Strong) lives in the 1930s with her 11-year-old daughter Maretha (bright Jireh Pierre). An antique piano with family carvings and totems holds an important place in the parlor. Maretha’s being trained to play so that someday she’ll be a successful piano teacher. Up from the South comes Beatrice’s ambitious brother Boy Willie (Earley Dean, powerfully interpreting both hope and frustration) with his former prison partner Lymon (handsome, charismatic Michael Mendez). They’ve brought a truckload of watermelons for sale. Willie mainly aims to get the piano to sell it. Then he can return to buy and work the farm land where his father and forefathers were slaves. All were owned by Sutter, who drowned in a well there. Beatrice thinks Willie killed him. She’s determined to keep the piano because of its carved family history and link to the Yellow Dog Ghosts. These were men burned to death in a train’s box cars. Whites set the fire after chasing those they thought had murdered Sutter and stole the piano carved with its historical lesson. Doaker’s brother Wining Boy (Patric Robinson, alternating between smooth and shaky) visits. He claims his quit his pro singing and piano playing because it led to debilitating drinking and womanizing. But all he knows is how to play piano. Though he engages musically with the men in the house, promoting comradeship, Wining Boy proves he does know more. He gives the history of the piano as the reason Beatrice won’t sell it. Further, he posits the causes of Sutter’s death and how the Yellow Dog Ghosts story came about. As for the future, Beatrice continually gets offers of marriage from Kenny Dozier’s solid, substantial Avery. A preacher, he’d like the piano to help in establishing his/their future church. An episode between Beatrice and Lymon indicates he’s changing. It’s possible Emerald Rose Sullivan’s attractive Grace will help him. All in all, any changes will affect the future of Boy Willie, Beatrice, and Maretha — a family and their piano. Although at times The Piano Lesson seems too lengthy, director Chuck Smith keeps the action moving considerably. He’s taken a definite stance on the existence of the Yellow Dog Ghosts that can be debated. To me, that adds to the need to attend to every textual facet of a complex drama, a challenge I like and that’s typical of the demands of a classic. John C. Reynolds’s scenery works on the whole, despite the difficulty of staging a box-set show within a three-quarter round. Michael Paquini’s lighting helps tremendously. Costumes and props are well chosen. Fans of WBTT, best known for its musical offerings, will be pleased by a few insertions of music, especially the one executed by Wining Boy.
