Denzel Washington hands over to his son Malcolm and keeps August Wilson in the family
August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson" deals profoundly with ancestry and heritage, which makes it all the more fitting that the new film adaptation, produced by Denzel Washington and directed by his son Malcolm, is a family affair
TORONTO (AP) — August Wilson ’s “The Piano Lesson” deals profoundly with ancestry and heritage, which makes it all the more fitting that the new film adaptation, produced by Denzel Washington and directed by his son Malcolm, is a family affair.
“The Piano Lesson,” which premiered Tuesday at the Toronto International Film Festival, is the third in Washington’s ongoing project to bring Wilson’s plays to the screen. It follows “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and, like those films, features several powerhouse performances, including Danielle Deadwyler as Berniece and John David Washington, Malcolm’s older brother, as Berniece's bother Boy Willie.
In 1930s Pittsburgh, Boy Willie has arrived at his sister’s home with plans to sell a family heirloom, a piano engraved by their ancestors who took it from their enslaver. In the tortured family drama that ensues, Berniece, Boy Willie and others (the cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Potts and Ray Fisher) wrestle with the haunting shadow of slavery and the weight of family legacy.
“There are so many legacies tied into this,” says Malcolm Washington. “I think it’s part of our duty when you’re in the position to make a film like this to honor that and uphold it. We’re here because so many people fought and sacrificed and acted to give opportunity for the next generation. This film and the story of it, ultimately, is much bigger than my family.”
