Regional Reviews: New Jersey The Piano Lesson Also see Cameron's review of 9 to 5
Though set in Pittsburgh's Hill Districtwhere Wilson grew up and most of his plays take placeThe Piano Lesson is heavily influenced by the impact of southern life. Boy Willie (Stephen Tyrone Williams) drives from Mississippi to Pennsylvania to sell a crop of watermelons with his friend Lymon (David Pegram) in the hopes of earning enough money to buy the farm on which his ancestors toiled as slaves. He puts up at the home of his uncle Doaker (Wilson veteran John Earl Jelks), where his sister Berniece (Miriam A. Hyman) also lives. They immediately clash over a family heirloom in Berniece's possession: a piano carved with the legends of their grandparents and great-grandparents. In an interesting reversal, Berniece, the city woman, represents a dogged loyalty to the past, whereas the intrepid Boy Willie embodies the growing number of African Americans who tried to make their mark in the "new" south. Berniece equates the loss of the piano with spiritual ruin; bearing this out, any attempt to move the instrument is met with flickering lights and shaking furniture. As much as Boy Willie tries to ignore the mounting evidence, it quickly becomes clear to the audience that something, or someone, wants the piano to stay in the family. This hardly represents Wilson's most extreme juxtaposition of the ordinary and the extraordinarythat would probably be Aunt Ester, the 285-year-old protagonist of Gem of the Ocean. And while there is certainly humor in The Piano Lessonjust as there is situational humor to be found in his other masterpieces, Fences and Joe Turner's Come and Goneone would not call it a comedy. Yet Jade King Carroll's odd production appears to privilege this aspect of the production, with the characters feeling oddly one-dimensional and the supernatural elements eliciting more laughs than chills. It doesn't help that neither Williams nor Hyman seem particularly well cast or able to do the heavy lifting Wilson requires. His dialogue is poetry; it needs a certain style to make it sing. Williams (a late addition to the cast, replacing Marcus Callender in rehearsals) rushes through his lines at breakneck pace, never connecting with Boy Willie's desire to forge his own future. Hyman has the unenviable task of singlehandedly communicating the female experience (a second woman character, played nicely by Shannon Janee Antalan, is inconsequential to the plot); rage is a key element to that experience. It also seems to be the only element Hyman is able to put across in her strident performance. There is plenty of shouting with little subtlety. Jelks is terrific as the firm but kind Doaker. At the performance I attended, he appeared to lose his place several times during his character's long speech extolling the history of the family piano, but he corrected himself like a pro. Similarly, the role of Wining BoyDoaker's brother, and himself a small-time musicianis made to steal the show, which is exactly what Cleavant Derricks does. However, Wining Boy is also meant to be the comic relief; having a production where the comedic aspects are so highly pitched diminishes the character's purpose to a degree. Pegram makes little impression as Lymon; Owiso Odera does better as Avery, an aspiring preacher who longs to marry Berniece. Eleven-year-old Plainsboro native Frances Brown is winning in the small role of Maretha, Berniece's daughter. And Wilson's gorgeous gifts are never not evident. I just wish that they were better served. The Piano Lesson continues through Sunday, February 7, 2016, at McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Theatre (91 University Place in Princeton). Tickets ($25-94.50) can be purchased online at www.mccarter.org, by phone (609-258-2787), or in person at the box office (Monday-Saturday, 10-6 [8pm on performance days]; Sunday, 11-6). |