But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the cash he needs to stake his future. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Piano Lesson is set in 1936 and features an ornately carved piano which, as the Charles family's prized possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles' Pittsburgh home. A director for the film is yet to be announced. This will be the third of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle plays to be adapted for film, following Fences in 2016 and the recently released Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who most recently appeared on Broadway in To Kill a Mockingbird, is set to direct the production.įollowing its Broadway run, the same cast will star in the play's film adaptation. Jackson, Danielle Brooks and John David Washington will star in a Broadway revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson in 2022, according to The Daily Mail.

August wilson the piano lesson broadway