The piano lesson play

Through Berniece’s conflicted attitudes toward the piano, Wilson suggests that history must not be ignored but faced directly-something that demands both active engagement with past pain and celebration of the good-for the sake of a better future. Though Berniece still owns the piano, she only associates it with the family’s past pain and grief and will neither play it herself nor tell her daughter Maretha its history. Years later, Boy Charles and his brothers stole the piano from the Sutters, and Boy Charles was killed in retaliation.

Boy Willie’s and Berniece’s grandmother and their father, Boy Charles, were traded by the Sutter family in exchange for the piano their grandfather Boy Willie, a woodworker, carved images in remembrance of his wife and son on the piano. The piano came into the family’s life back in the days of slavery (only a generation removed from most of the characters).

It’s a unique piano, not only for its beautiful and well-maintained quality, but for the carvings of family members engraved on it. The most important historical symbol in the play is the family piano.