The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, the towering playwright of the 20th Century, is a significant part of his 10-play cycle covering “the Great Migration” to the North of African Americans following the Civil War and into the 20thCentury. It may be difficult to separate the significance of the play itself from experiencing it as a live performance, but A Noise Within has the help of veteran director Gregg T. Daniel, along with a phalanx of talented designers to illuminate the tale.
ANW’s production begins laconically with the traditional storytelling swap that has come down from African griots. Wilson combines the Charles family’s slave experiences with their present in the late 30s: a time when America began to emerge out of the Great Depression.
An apparition of the family’s slave owner Sutter looms over Doaker Charles (Alex Morris) and his niece, Berniece (Nija Okoro), through their possession of the Sutter piano, onto which their ancestors had carved their own African progenitors. But the piano itself becomes a bone of contention, when brother Boy Willie (Kai A. Ealy) shows up with his pal, Lymon (Evan Lewis Smith), intent on capitalizing on the precious piano in order to gain enough money to buy a plot of Sutter’s former plantation. The taut situation is complicated by Sutter’s ghostly figure, which infuses the story with terror beyond its moment-to-moment action. As the key performers, Ealy as Boy Willie and Okoro as his sister, Berniece brilliantly pull the tension tighter, which enraptures audiences until the last moments of this long play. As a fairly disinterested bystander, Smith as Lymon is a solid voice of reason; leaning first one way, and then another, standing in for us, as we watch the conflict unfold.
ANW’s atmospheric production takes full advantage of the forestage, coupled with a precarious stairway behind another living space, all designed by Tesshi Nakagawa. Coupled with Brandon Baruch’s mottled lighting that facilitates mysterious shadows, and the knocks and rumblings of Jeff Gardner’s musical underscoring, Alethia Moore-Del Monaco’s contrastingly bright period costuming creates a perfect counterpoint. In all, a perfect production of a significant play. But be sure to be ready for a loooong, leisurely journey.
The Piano Lesson continues at A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena 91107, Thursday through this weekend, November 10, 2024: Saturday at 7:30 pm., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets start at $51.50 (including fees). Student tickets start at $20. For more information or tickets call (626) 356-3100 or go online to: www.anoisewithin.org.
