Julius Tennon (Avery) and Vanessa Bell Calloway (Bernice)
Monday, November 19, 2007 - 12:00 pm
THE PIANO LESSON At 5 a.m., Doaker (Alex Morris) is awakened by pounding on the door of his Philadelphia house. It’s his brother, Boy Willie (Russell Andrews), and his friend, Lymon (Roscoe C. Freeman), up from the South with a truck of watermelons they intend to sell. Boy Willie’s noisy entrance also wakes up Doaker’s sister Berniece (Vanessa Bell Calloway), who sees Boy Willie as trouble in the making. As soon as Berniece’s daughter, Maretha (DaShawn R. Barnes), leaves for school and Berniece for work, Boy Willie tries to enlist Doaker in his plan to sell the family heirloom: a piano hand-carved with the faces of relatives and African totems. Set during the Depression, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson is one of the most engaging in his ten-play cycle about African American life in the 20th century. Claude Purdy directs a uniformly strong cast, including Julius Tennon as a preacher and Diarra O. Kilpatrick (substituting for Tammi Mac) as a floozy. Joel Daavid’s production design lends itself to non-intrusive stage business on the well-thought-out set, which is, of course, dominated by the piano. RKA/StageWalkers Productions with 444 Productions at THE HAYWORTH, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Dec. 9 (no perfs Nov. 22-23). (213) 389-9860. (Sandra Ross)
THE PIANO LESSON At 5 a.m., Doaker (Alex Morris) is awakened by pounding on the door of his Philadelphia house. It’s his brother, Boy Willie (Russell Andrews), and his friend, Lymon (Roscoe C. Freeman), up from the South with a truck of watermelons they intend to sell. Boy Willie’s noisy entrance also wakes up Doaker’s sister Berniece (Vanessa Bell Calloway), who sees Boy Willie as trouble in the making. As soon as Berniece’s daughter, Maretha (DaShawn R. Barnes), leaves for school and Berniece for work, Boy Willie tries to enlist Doaker in his plan to sell the family heirloom: a piano hand-carved with the faces of relatives and African totems. Set during the Depression, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson is one of the most engaging in his ten-play cycle about African American life in the 20th century. Claude Purdy directs a uniformly strong cast, including Julius Tennon as a preacher and Diarra O. Kilpatrick (substituting for Tammi Mac) as a floozy. Joel Daavid’s production design lends itself to non-intrusive stage business on the well-thought-out set, which is, of course, dominated by the piano. RKA/StageWalkers Productions with 444 Productions at THE HAYWORTH, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Dec. 9 (no perfs Nov. 22-23). (213) 389-9860. (Sandra Ross)