That the white men who had a hand in killing Boy Charles, their father, have all been murdered is a probability that the presence of Sutter’s ghost makes a certainty. Their names are mentioned among those of some nine to twelve men who fell in the well on Sutter’s farm: Ed Saunders, Howard Peterson, Charlie Webb, and Robert Smith. These are allegedly the men who, in 1911, set a boxcar on fire, killing their father, along with some hoboes. And the last one to fall, to be the victim of the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog (as the spirits of the boxcar victims are known), is Sutter himself. Luckily for Boy Willie, Sutter’s death leaves the land to Sutter’s brother, who is selling it. Against the years of menace and routine violence, wrestling with a ghost is mere play. The very close association with sudden and violent death that each character has informs and drives their responses to the current events. Berniece’s enmity with her brother is based on blaming him for her husband’s murder by a posse. Wining Boy, like Lymon and Boy Willie, is an ex-felon, and his wandering seems necessary not just for his career, but to avoid confinement. Lymon’s refusal to return home arises from fear of the sheriff who is looking for him. And Boy Willie’s fierce determination to acquire the slave-owning family’s land is fueled by a history of white violence. And, of course, the piano itself, with its exquisite representations of the family’s legacy, is both womb and seed of the outrageous personal malice suffered by family members as well as their revenge.

It is very like living in a war zone where alertness is all, where fear is simply one element of the breathable air. That is the tension that roils under the humor, the storytelling, the ferocity with which the characters hold their positions, the efforts at reconciliation. And the relief, when the turmoil surrounding the ghost and the piano is put to rest, is an extreme, if not permanent, experience of the triumph of bravery over fear. The struggle between memory and foresight, regret and promise operates within a world of terror. In that context, the battles are truly mighty; the victories are as rough as they are noble.

Toni Morrison is a novelist who received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Piano Lesson was initially presented as a staged reading at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s 1987 National Playwrights Conference.

The Piano Lesson opened on November 26, 1987, at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Lloyd Richards, Artistic Director, Benjamin Mordecai, Managing Director, in New Haven, Connecticut, with the following cast:

DOAKER: Carl Gordon

BOY WILLIE: Samuel L. Jackson

LYMON: Rocky Carroll

BERNIECE: Starletta DuPois

MARETHA: Chenee Johnson and Ylonda Powell at alternate performances

AVERY: Tommy Hollis

WINING BOY: Lou Myers

GRACE: Sharon Washington

Director: Lloyd Richards

Set Design: E. David Cosier, Jr.

Costume Design: Constanza Romero

Lighting Design: Christopher Akerlind

Musical Direction: Dwight Andrews

Sound Design: J. Scott Servheen