Like Chekhov, August Wilson chose a central image as the symbol of conflicting dreams and a changing society. Berniece, still furious with him, is not just his reluctant host but also half-owner of the family heirloom, a piano hand carved with family portraits and scenes that he hopes to sell as partial payment for those 100 acres. Three years ago, a venture in the woods ended with Crawley’s death which left Berniece, Willie Boy’s sister, a widow. A jack-of-all trades, he (John David Washington in his Broadway debut) sometimes skirts the law and lands in jail. He pictures himself surveying his 100 newly purchased acres of rich Southern land, land once owned by Old Sutter where Boy Willie’s people were slaves. August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson opens with Boy Willie’s noisy arrival up North in a broken-down truck loaded with watermelons and a dream.
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