The Piano Lesson

Set against the backdrop of 1936 Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning The Piano Lesson explores the lives of the Charles family, and vividly portrays an enduring conflict between siblings. The family piano at the heart of the argument is an heirloom intricately carved by an enslaved ancestor. Determined sharecropper Boy Willie is eager to sell the piano to purchase land on which his ancestors endured hardship, while his sister Berniece fiercely maintains that the piano is where their heritage lies. A testament to the complexities of family, history, and legacy, 2025 Elliot Norton Award-winning The Piano Lesson is an explosive and incisive inquiry into the struggle between what we owe to our past and how we build our future.