The Piano Lesson (2024)

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by August Wilson, The Piano Lesson (2024) is a tightly drawn story of a family legacy. This production is a family affair itself — Denzel Washington has said he plans to produce all 10 of Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” of plays that tell of the African-American experience in the 20th century. He started with Fences in 2016 (also starring in) and then Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2020. Now he produced this one with his son Malcolm Washington directing and son John David Washington starring (John David reprises his role from the Broadway revival).

I hadn’t read or seen this play before, and I found the story gripping with top-notch performances. Two generations of this family battle back and forth about the meaning and value of their own history, while the youngest generation observes and a literal ghost of the past intrudes. The film opens in 1911 with an event critical to main story, which takes place in the 1930s. There’s also a flashback to the 1850s-60s that gives further background. Thus, costumes are important to showing the change of year, and this movie doesn’t skimp on that aspect (even though this is not a flashy frock-filled flick).

The main characters basically wear the same outfits throughout the course of the few days of this story. Except for the sister, Berniece, played by Danielle Deadwyler, who has a couple costume changes. Those costumes are imbued with symbolism and further the story, as Deadwyler told Vogue:

“Miss Francine [Jamison-Tanchuck], our costume designer, loves history and is just a marvel when it comes to period work. And then Malcolm [Washington, director] and I also had a conversation where we wondered, What does it mean to tell the spiritual story of Berniece? I’m thinking about West African spirituality and Black American spirituality, and telling that story through the wardrobe. For instance, what does it mean to be an orisha in Yoruba practice — someone who goes back into the earth and sacrifices herself, in a sense?

And that is seen in the form of the color yellow, which is like soil. It’s like I’m offering myself up for those who have turned away from the spirits. You rise as a result of that act — it brings you closer to God — and that is shown through the color white. It’s pure, open, accessible. So, you see her go from this yellow to white. In that final scene when she’s at the piano, she’s in a liminal space, and she surrenders to this ancestral divination. That story is everything.”

Director Malcolm Washington mentioned in Esquire that the costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck used a lot of authentic garments for this film: “All the clothes that Danielle Deadwyler wears is all vintage thirties clothes.” I believe it!

Another interesting costume is the beautiful floral gown worn by singer/songwriter Erykah Badu, who plays a nightclub singer in a brief scene. She also wrote an essay in a book celebrating the making of the film.

Have you seen The Piano Lesson movie or the play?

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