Genealogy
The Silent Characters Along with the dozens of on and offstage characters in The Piano Lesson, two of the most important figures never speak, but wield incredible power: THE PIANO
Bernice
Sold for piano b. 1826
Walter
age nine
ma Ola
1876 1928
Boy Charles
b. 1879 d. July 4, 1911 Killed after rescuing the family piano
Boy Willie b. 1906
“The very validity of the word ‘inanimate’ is called into question in this play, especially as it pertains to the large, soundproducing, dominant physical object that is the piano. If the root word anima refers to that which has breath, spirit, or life, then the piano that plays on its own is animate, not inanimate. Its alive qualities are what keeps Berniece from touching it, for fear of waking the spirits.” — from Marian Wolbers’ “Nomos, Mysticism, and Power Objects in August Wilson” THE TRUCK
“This truck full of watermelons is not just the play’s mobility–it is also a kind of offstage character with its own colorful personality and multiple roles. The truck bears a heavy weight as symbol and dramatic glue. Integral to the action, it sits offstage but not off page, where it stokes the imagination. What color is it? What make? What is its mechanical problem? What is its future? Like a magic carpet it arrives, solves problems, and disappears.” —from Toni Morrison’s introduction to The Piano Lesson 11