The Piano Lesson

August Wilson

At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlour of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with a lorry-load of water-melons and a get-rich-quick scheme the proceeds of which he aims to buy the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves. He aims to sell the antique piano for the balance of the cash he needs to stake his future. But he reckons without Berniece's determination to hold on to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. The dilemma is the real "piano lesson", reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past as of opportunities in the present.

Characters (in order of appearance)

Doaker Charles - a tall, thin man of 47, with severe features. He works full-time as a railroad cook.

Boy Willie - 30 years old. He has an infectious grin and a boyishness that is apt for his name. He is brash and impulsive, talkative and somewhat crude in speech and manner.

Lymon - 29 years old, Boy Willie's partner. He talks little and then with straight-forwardness that is often disarming.

Berniece - 35 years old with an 11 years-old daughter. She is still in mourning for her husband after three years.

Maretha - her 11-years old daughter

Avery - 38 years old, honest and ambitious, he has taken to city life like a fish to water, finding in it opportunities for growth and advancement that did not exist for him in the rural South. He is dressed in a suit and tie with a gold cross around his neck.

Wining Boy - 56 years old. Doaker's elder brother. He tries to present the image of a successful musician and gambler, but his music, his clothes and his manner of presentation are old. He is a man who looking back over his life continues to live it with an odd mixture of zest and sorrow.

Grace - 30 something. A lady of somewhat dubious virtue.