The Piano Lesson , a big screen adaptation of August Wilson ’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play — the fourth in the late playwright’s celebrated “Pittsburgh Cycle” about the Black experience in that city during the 20th century — had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Saturday morning at the Herzog Theatre. Reactions on the ground were largely positive, but prospects with the Academy may be somewhat limited.
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Produced by the team of Denzel Washington and Todd Black , who previously oversaw the transfer of two other Wilson plays into films — 2016’s Fences , which is set in the 1950s, and 2020’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom , which is set in the 1920s — The Piano Lesson , which is set in the 1930s, is a Washington family passion project. It was EP’d by Denzel’s daughter, Katia Washington . It was co-written (with Mudbound Oscar nominee Virgil Williams ) and directed by one of Denzel’s sons, Malcolm Washington , in his feature writing and directing debut, which he dedicates to his mother, Pauletta Washington . And it stars another of Denzel’s sons, John David Washington , who previously did solid work in BlacKkKlansman , Tenet and Malcolm & Marie , and does so again in this one.
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the film revolves around a pair of siblings arguing over the fate of a family heirloom, a piano engraved by an enslaved ancestor that was preserved through generations at great cost, and now resides, like the sister, in the home of their uncle, Doaker Charles ( Samuel L. Jackson , who was part of the original 1987 production at Yale Rep and a 2022-2023 Broadway revival).
The brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington, who played the same role in the Broadway revival), shows up with a friend ( Ray Fisher ) after years away, anxious to make money so that he can buy the land on which his ancestors toiled, and advocating that they sell the piano. The sister, Berniece ( Danielle Deadwyler ), a reserved woman with a young daughter, insists on keeping it. As tensions between them grow, ghosts of the past — literally and figuratively — emerge.
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Many of the performances are solid, and the production has been “opened up” from the stage as much as any of the adaptations of Wilson’s work. But it still plays quite theatrically — and that’s before a bunch of metaphysical stuff enters the equation. The earlier Wilson adaptations found recognition from the Academy. Fences was nominated for best picture, best actor (Denzel Washington), best actress ( Viola Davis , who won) and best adapted screenplay (Wilson, posthumously). And Ma Rainey was nominated for best actor ( Chadwick Boseman , posthumously), best actress (Davis), best costume design (it won), best makeup/hairstyling (it won) and best production design.
I think this one stands its best shot in the supporting acting categories — Deadwyler, Fisher and Jackson are all standouts. An adapted screenplay nom is certainly within reach, as is recognition in the same crafts categories in which Ma Rainey was nominated. And in a wide open year for the best actor race, there could be room for John David Washington.
Netflix will give the film a limited theatrical release starting Nov. 8, and it will then drop on the streaming platform on Nov. 22.
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