STRONG CAST, DIRECTOR MAKE `THE PIANO LESSON' A WINNER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992                   TAG: 9202290227
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
STRONG CAST, DIRECTOR MAKE `THE PIANO LESSON' A WINNER
Mill Mountain Theatre's production of "The Piano Lesson" is richly textured with humor, authenticity and insights into black society in flux. In addition, it's a splendidly acted production with a resoundingly solid cast.
August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play takes place in Pittsburgh in 1936 in the household of a black family that has moved north from Mississippi.
Doaker, played by Carl Jackson, is the uncle and railroad cook who serves as a genial and practical referee through much of the play. Berniece, played by Lynne-Marie Brown, is his widowed niece who is grooming her daughter (Damecha Delany) to make the upwardly mobile step into school teaching.
The household seems fairly placid until Boy Willie Charles, Berniece's brother, arrives with a truckload of watermelons and his sidekick Lymon in tow. Played by Herbert Mark Parker, Boy Willie is a rambunctious entrepreneur. He intends to sell the watermelons to complete a land purchase back in Mississippi from a white family that has been inextricably and detrimentally tied to the Charles family since slave days.
The watermelons are secondary to Boy Willie's financial interests, however. He wants to sell the family piano, an heirloom with family history carved into its surface. Not only does it represent landmarks in the family's heritage, it contains much of the pain brought about by a violent past. Berniece refused to play it after her mother died for fear that it would unleash the spirits of past traumas into the household. Still, she clings to it and refuses to sell.
This war between Boy Willie and Berniece constitutes much of the play's conflict. For Boy Willie, the piano represents a useless link to the past as long as it sits quietly. He sees the opportunity to turn it into an opportunity for the family's social and economic progress. Though Berniece refuses to give it up because of its significance, she is tied less closely to the family's roots than Boy Willie.
At three hours, the play is abundant in detail and fully fleshed characterizations. Jackson is an engaging presence who tries to act as the voice of reason in the midst of the turmoil. Parker is all enthusiasm and big plans. Tim Johnson, as Lymon, is an innocent would-be Lothario, wide-eyed at the big city. Brown is a strong-willed and forceful widow who won't back down. Delany, who played the quiet daughter Thursday night, has a natural stage presence.
Leonard E. Steinline Jr. is entertainingly robust as the preacher who courts Berniece. Thomas Byrd III is a formidable comic presence as the rambling, gambling uncle who goes by the name of Wining Boy. And Robin McClamb is a saucy city woman who charms the country watermelon salesmen.
The cast is thoroughly impressive and generates a lot of chemistry, and director Jere Lee Hodgin pulls the performances together with energy and flair.
The show runs through March 15. For information, call 342-5740.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB