ShareDenzel Washington and his family celebrated the screening in Toronto of Oscar hopeful “The Piano Lesson,” the latest Hollywood adaptation of an August Wilson play in which the entire clan was involved. Washington’s son Malcolm makes his feature directorial debut and elder son John David stars in the movie, which tells the story of a family struggling to make peace with its past and confront the legacy of slavery. Washington himself is a producer of the film, wife Pauletta and daughter Olivia have small roles, and daughter Katia is an executive producer.
“I’m happy, a proud father,” Washington said in a Q&A session after the screening. For 33-year-old Malcolm, who received a warm ovation at the film’s conclusion, “this was such a beautiful time for us all to come together, but it became something much bigger than our own family.” “This is a story of ancestry, of lineage, and dealing with the August Wilson canon at all, you’re tying yourself into a much larger lineage there.” “The Piano Lesson,” written in 1987 and set in the 1930s, is part of Wilson’s so-called “Pittsburgh Cycle,” a series of 10 plays that aimed to explore the African American experience in the 20th century.
It debuted at the Telluride festival in Colorado before making its way over the border for a splashy international premiere in Canada’s largest city. The film will stream on Netflix on November 22. At the center of the story is an heirloom piano, hand-carved with images of their ancestors and imbued with the family’s difficult history.
John David Washington, 40, plays Boy Willie, who wants to sell the instrument to buy land and get ahead, while sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) insists that they keep it. The two actors turn in electrifying performances as they duel over the fate of the piano, while confronting issues of race, spirituality and acceptance of the past.
Deadwyler, who many believe was snubbed for an Oscar nomination for her performance in “Till” (2022), is on nearly every expert’s shortlist for a best supporting actress nod this time around, according to awards prediction site Gold Derby. The film is adapted specifically from a recent Broadway revival of Wilson’s play, and retains much of the same cast, including Samuel L. Jackson as the de facto patriarch.
Denzel Washington is no stranger to Wilson’s work; this is the third of his plays that he has helped bring to the big screen. The Oscar winner directed and starred in “Fences” (2016), for which Viola Davis won an Academy Award, and then produced “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which took home two golden statuettes. The Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sunday. — AFP
