A Masterful Fugue of Dramatic Tension: Virgil Williams Discusses ‘The Piano Lesson’

Playwright August Wilson penned some of the most important creative works chronicling Black life during the 20^th century. The Piano Lesson is the fourth in a series of ten plays dubbed “American Century Cycle” or ‘The Pittsburgh Cycle” because they all take place in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Many of these award-winning plays have been adapted to film, often under Denzel Washington’s auspice, including the soon-to-be released The Piano Lesson. The upcoming version is co-written by Malcolm Washington and Virgil Williams (Mudbound, A Journal for Jordan). Romare Bearden’s 1983 color lithograph The Piano Lesson fueled Wilson’s story which is set in the 1930s, on the heels of the Great Depression and during the Great Migration.

It previously aired as a television movie on CBS in 1995 and starred Charles Dutton and Alfre Woodard. This version stars John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Corey Hawkins, and Michael Potts, several of whom were in the 2022 stage revival. Denzel Washington, Katia Washington, Costanza Romero Wilson, and Todd Black serve as producers.

Malcolm Washington takes this American treasure under his wing as his feature writing/directorial debut, infusing the corporeal and the phantasmal, creating an emotional symmetry of pain, hope, resolving generational curses, and closure. Virgil Williams helped him craft the script for this latest iteration of the iconic story. Williams recently spoke with Script magazine about breaking down August Wilson’s exceptional and intense play.

Sonya Alexander: When you first started working on the script with Malcolm, did you each take on different aspects of the script or work on equal parts of it?

Virgil Williams: We worked side-by-side on everything until he went into prep. We had to distill the piece into a really simple form and then we had really lengthy discussions. We left Los Angeles and went to Palm Desert, where we sequestered for days to break it down and distill it.

Sonya Alexander: How did writing with someone who was also directing the film help shape the vision of it?

Virgil Williams: It was tremendously helpful because I knew that part of the exercise would arm Malcolm with the intimacy of the project so that he could be on set with the amazing actors...these killers! I went through a similar exercise on a project with his father called A Journal for Jordan. It was really about digging out scene by scene. It happened in processes. First, Malcolm and I had to lay the whole thing out and decide what we were going to change and what we were going to make cinema. It helped crystalize his vision. He's so generous and such a nice guy. He's my friend now. It was very helpful. I think to him as well.

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Sonya Alexander: Why do you think August Wilson chose the piano as the musical instrument to symbolize the Charles family's trauma and pain?

Virgil Williams: I think it's because it's something you can play. I think because there's ebony and ivory on it. There are both colors on that keyboard. August's father was German, so he had a 360 view of what the culture was in a specific kind of way and the orchestra of white and black playing together. Also, the real estate of wood allows for whatever vision he saw in relation to the carving.

Sonya Alexander: How did learning about aspects of August Wilson affect your writing?

Virgil Williams: Some of these jobs are more mercenary than others because I have to feed my children while doing this craft. But it was really a thrill. Malcolm and I had to take a deep dive into this piece because we had to take it apart in order to put it back together and make it functional as a script that can be shot as a film. It was no small task. I just felt very honored. This is the third film based on one of Wilson’s works, so we had to honor the previous two and move past them, while elevating the whole thing.

Sonya Alexander: Besides its history of slavery, what do you think makes the South such a haunting environment?

Virgil Williams: Trauma gets passed down from generation to generation to generation until you address it. The slavery that occurred is like a rock that one throws into a pond. In The Piano Lesson, we're dealing with some of those outer circles. That whole Pittsburgh series is that series of circles that emanate from that piece of history. We all have to choose what aspects of the Diaspora we want to talk about. A lot of the time the trauma aspect is where our stories are focused whether it's being locked up or enslaved. We have to focus the light on these aspects of the Diaspora because they do happen. 

What I like about this piece is it's about what you do after. What do you do when your history's been stolen, and what do you do after you've stolen it back? Now it's up to you. And the argument of what to do with it is entirely balanced. It's this beautiful piece of storytelling symmetry. It's like very classic architecture. With Boy Willie and Berniece, the conflict is entirely balanced. It's so balanced that we could add things and move things and make a movie out of it all these years later.

Sonya Alexander: How were the actors chosen for this?

Virgil Williams: Shout out to Malcolm Washington. Obviously, there are members from the Broadway cast who are there. Directors see what they see, and I have to shout out Malcolm for assembling a Murderers' Row of cast members...! We all hung out in Toronto at the Toronto Film Festival and they're all really lovely people. Malcolm set the tone for all of that. I feel like the kicker of a very good football team! [laughs]

Sonya Alexander: That's an excellent lead-in to my next question. Of the characters in the story, who would you like to hang out with the most?

Virgil Williams: I think Berniece. I think because of the strength in her. I think what's so astounding about what August did is the way he was able to occupy the female gaze. That is no small task. The speeches that she has are so fully realized. It goes to show you that this was a dude who was really listening to the women in his life. He wasn't just an observer, but also a participant. In a screenplay, there's always addition by subtraction and some of the cuts we made...what ended up happening was it illuminated certain pieces of her run. The speech about "I need a man to love me," was a beneficiary of one of the cuts that we made.

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Sonya Alexander: How did your writing routine vary writing with someone as opposed to writing solo?

Virgil Williams: The story and circumstance will always tell you what the process is. Your job is to listen to it as best you can and marry your stuff to that. Shout out to Denzel Washington and Todd Black for having a sense that Malcolm and I would vibrate well.

Sonya Alexander: How do you feel the story is universal?

Virgil Williams: This is one of the genius things that August does. He takes a story that exists in the African American Diaspora and elevates it. It doesn't matter if you're connected to the African American Diaspora or not because it's about family, ancestors, legacy. You can come from a broken family or a fully united family. He uses themes that are timeless. And he asks a question, ‘What are you going to do with your history?’ That's a human question. And he answers it, ‘You've got to play your piano.’ Whatever that means for you.

Sonya Alexander: What did you take away from this experience that will inform your future writing?

Virgil Williams: I think the idea of writing in service. We really tried to write in service of what this means to American history and what this certainly means to Black American history. You take a piece of each job with you and with this, I was writing to something that was much bigger than I am. This kindness, compassion, poise thing these Washington boys and their father have taught me...this commitment to being your most excellent is priceless.

Netflix’s The Piano Lesson hits select theaters on November 8 and starts streaming on Netflix on November 22.