The past literally comes back to haunt the characters in “The Piano Lesson,” August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Now, 22 years after its Broadway debut, this deeply moving work about the lingering scars of slavery on a 1930s Pittsburgh family is getting a sterling revival by the Signature Theatre Company.
While the ghost of a white man — the descendant of the family who enslaved the Charles family’s ancestors two generations earlier — is frequently evoked, it’s a majestic piano sitting in the family’s living room that dominates the proceedings. Carved with the likenesses of those slaves for whom it was once traded, the piano has a bloody family history marked by cruelty and death.
That personal connection, however painful, is what compels widow Berniece (Roslyn Ruff) to hang on to it even though her brother, Boy Willie (Brandon J. Dirden), begs her to sell it so he can use the money to buy land on which their grandfather previously worked as a slave.
“If Berniece doesn’t want to sell the piano, I’m gonna cut it in half and sell my half!” he tells their uncle, Doaker (James A. Williams), who struggles to keep the peace.
Boy Willie has just returned to the Pittsburgh family home from the Deep South, accompanied by his friend Lymon (Jason Dirden), a wide-eyed country boy who’s eager to meet a beautiful city girl. They have a truckload of watermelons to sell, after which Boy Willie intends to get rid of the piano, which stubbornly refuses to be lifted, no matter what.
Whether or not to preserve the legacy of the past, however horrific, is the compelling theme of “The Piano Lesson,” which is rife with Wilson’s poetic dialogue and richly drawn characterizations. There’s a musicality to the language that frequently bursts forth in song, with the characters breaking out into field chants and Doaker’s brother Wining Boy (an exuberant Chuck Cooper), a traveling performer, singing bluesy songs while pounding out boogie-woogie rhythms on the piano.
The play is filled with emotionally resonant moments, as when Lymon — wearing the grand, if too big, silk suit he’s bought from Wining Boy — nearly manages to break down Berniece’s emotional defenses by gifting her with a bottle of fancy perfume.
Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson has drawn beautifully lived-in performances from the ensemble, which also includes Eric Lenox Abrams as Berniece’s preacher boyfriend, Alexis Holt as her 11-year-old daughter and Mandi Masden as the woman Boy Willie brings home for an ill-fated assignation.
The ominous atmosphere is abetted by Michael Carnahan’s looming set design picturing the house literally decaying. Rui Rita’s lighting and David Van Tieghem’s sound design also figure prominently, especially in the raucous climactic scene in which the ghost angrily resists the preacher’s attempt at an exorcism.
Like many of Wilson’s works, “The Piano Lesson,” running nearly three hours, occasionally feels overwritten and overly long. But this superbly staged and acted production is gripping nonetheless.