Over the years, the world of cinema has given us some exceptional movie family dynasties. The Coppolas, the Skarsgårds, the Sheens, the Carradines, and the Arquettes to name but a few. Now, with Netflix's upcoming August Wilson play adaptation The Piano Lesson, the Washingtons are set to solidify their place amongst them. Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Malcolm Washington, son of Denzel, and starring Tenet and BlacKkKlansman's John David Washington (Malcolm's older brother), the movie — which also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler, and Ray Fisher — looks set to honour Wilson's seminal exploration of racial identity, familial legacy, and the ties that bind. Watch the emotionally provocative trailer below:
"You feel that," says Washington's Boy Willie as he places his niece's hand on the titular heirloom at the start of this charged first look at The Piano Lesson, "that's your family, that's your blood." And in this film, adapted from Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, it's that amalgamation of oak, ivory, blood, sweat, and tears that provides a portal to the Charles family's past — and the key to tensions between siblings Boy Willie and Berniece (Deadwyler) in the present, as the former seeks to sell the reminder of his ancestors' struggles whilst the latter tries to hold on to it. An official Netflix synopsis reads as follows: "Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, The Piano Lesson follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor."
"Every family has a history, stories from the past that inform the present; an origin story," explains director Washington in a statement on Netflix's website. "Ultimately this story is much bigger than me and my family — it, like the Black American experience, is an interconnected web of stories that span space and time. I hope that when audiences experience our film, they see themselves on the screen and hear the voices of their ancestors calling to them, offering peace and protection."
Given the potent use of music and symbolic imagery in this first trailer for The Piano Lesson, and the evident passion that's gone into the project both behind and in front of the camera, it looks like the Washingtons are set to go three for three when it comes to knockout Wilson adaptations as this one joins 2016's Denzel directed-and-starring Fences and 2020's Chadwick Boseman led Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. We'll be seated, ready to watch and learn what The Piano Lesson has to teach us when the movie hits Netflix on 22 November.