The Piano LessonEssay Preview: The Piano LessonReport this essayPlot OverviewThe Piano Lesson is set in Pittsburgh in 1936, with all the action taking place in the house of Doaker Charles. A 137-year-old, upright piano, decorated with totems in the manner of African sculpture, dominates the parlor.
The play opens at dawn. Boy Willie, Doakers nephew, knocks at the door and enters with his partner, Lymon. Two have come from Mississippi to sell watermelons. Willie has not seen his sister Berniece, who lives with Doaker, for three years as he has been serving a sentence on the Parchman Prison Farm.
Willie asks his uncle for a celebratory drink: the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog have drowned Sutter in his own well. Willie intends to sell the family piano and use the money to buy Sutters land, the land his ancestors once worked as slaves. Doaker, however, is sure Berniece will not part with the piano. Indeed, Avery Brown—a preacher who has been courting Berniece since her husband Crawley died—has already tried to get her to sell it. Willie schemes to get in touch with the prospective buyer himself.
Suddenly Berniece cries out off-stage, “Go on get away.” Berniece claims she has seen Sutters ghost, calling Boy Willies name. She is convinced that her brother pushed Sutter into the well. Shaken, she refuses to cooperate with his plans.
Three days later, Doakers brother Wining Boy, a wandering, washed-up recording star, sits at the kitchen table discussing the recent events with the men. Wining Boy mentions that he heard Willie and Lymon were on Parchman Farm. Willie explains that some whites had tried to chase Willie, Lymon, and Bernieces husband Crawley from some wood they were pilfering. Crawley fought back and was killed while the other two went to prison. The men reminisce about Parchman and sing an old work song.
Doaker then explains the pianos history to Lymon. During slavery, a man named Robert Sutter, the recently deceased-Sutters grandfather, owned the Charles family. He wanted to make an anniversary present out of his friends piano but could not afford it. Thus he traded a full and half grown slave—Doakers grandmother Berniece and his father—for the instrument. Though initially Sutters wife loved the piano, she eventually came to miss her slaves, falling desperately ill. So, Sutter asked Doakers grandfather, Willie Boy, to carve the faces of his wife and child into the piano. Willie Boy did not only carve his immediately family, however, but included his mother, father, and various scenes from the family history.
The Musical
• The doaker-to-song is an old song written as though it existed in 1856, but is actually a very old song (1859). It is played by Robert S. Simpson, Jr., a local musician from Washington. The doaker song serves as a tribute to the band that has played at the Washington National Theater (WNT). The song is actually sung during the performance of the “Tune In” song by Tom Sides for “Twin Peaks”. The band that plays the doaker song and its accompanying theme have worked in conjunction to create an immersive experience, and the doaker song plays well with the band’s special guests. It is one of many examples of the musical tradition from the WNT to a wider community of fans who are interested in the WNT.
The Musical
• The doaker-to-song is an old song written as though it existed in 1856, but is actually a very old song (1859). It is played by Robert S. Simpson, Jr., a local musician from Washington. The doaker song serves as a tribute to the band that has played at the Washington National Theater (WNT). The song is actually sung during the performance of the “Tune In” song by Tom Sides for “Twin Peaks”. The band that plays the doaker song and its accompanying theme have worked in conjunction to create an immersive experience, and the doaker song plays well with the band’s special guests. It is one of many examples of the musical tradition from the WNT to a wider community of fans who are interested in the WNT.
Years after slavery, Berniece and Boy Willies father, Boy Charles, developed an obsession over the piano, believing that as long as the Sutters held it, they held the family in bondage. Thus, on July 4, 1911, he, Doaker, and Wining Boy stole it. Later that day, lynchers set Boy Charless house on fire. He fled to catch the Yellow Dog, but the mob stopped the train and set his boxcar on fire. Boy Charles died along with the hobos in his car, all of whom became the ghosts of the railroad.
Once Doaker has finished his story, Willie and Lymon attempt to move the piano. Berniece enters and commands Willie to stop, since the piano is their legacy. Berniece invokes the memory of their mother, who attended to the piano until the day she died. She attacks Boy Willie for perpetuating the endless theft and murder in their family, blaming him for the death of her husband. Suddenly, Maretha, Bernieces daughter, is heard screaming upstairs in terror, as Sutters ghost has appeared again.
The following morning, Wining Boy enters with a suit