The spirited battle between brother and sister over the piano is the spine of the plot. And as everyone keeps telling him: “Berniece ain’t going to sell that piano.” The quiet man cast full#The only hitch to Boy Willie’s scheme to buy the land is that in order to raise the full sum, he must sell his share of the family heritage: his mother’s hand-carved piano (and a real beauty), which he jointly owns with his sister. Boy Willie vigorously denies any suggestion that he might have had something to do with Sutter’s demise, but a ghostly rumor has it that other property owners have been mysteriously falling down wells lately, too. His plan is to sell the watermelons that he and Lymon trucked up from down home and put the money toward the purchase of a plot of land owned by a white man named Sutter, who has conveniently fallen down a well. The truck he rode up on belongs to cousin Lymon (a holy innocent, in Ray Fisher’s appealing performance), although ownership seems to be a wobbly concept in this family.īoy Willie is on a mission. Even Maretha dutifully does her homework.Ī human hurricane blasts through this quiet household when Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie (a whirling dervish of a performance from John David Washington), makes a surprise visit from back home in Sunflower, 1,800 miles away. Berniece cleans house for a white family that seems to value her. A man who adheres to the principle of family stability, he shares this weathered stronghold with his niece, Berniece (an endearing soul, as played by Danielle Brooks) and her young daughter, Maretha (a role played at alternate performances by Jurnee Swan and Nadia Daniel).ĭoaker is a pensioned railroad cook whose periodic arias to his treasured profession (“Now, I’ll tell you something about the railroad”) are delivered by Jackson with the rapturous passion of a religious convert. Jackson, who is married to the director), the current patriarch, owns his own home - a true measure of success in this era. Doaker Charles (a rock-solid performance from Samuel L. In 1936, when “Piano Lesson” is set, the Charles family appears to have survived the worst of the Depression.
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