August Wilson’s 1987 play is opened up in ways that that work—and some that don’t—in this beautifully acted film adaptation.

When playwright August Wilson died in 2005, theater critic Charles Isherwood — writing for the New York Times — called him “theater’s poet of Black America.” His enduring legacy to

The latest adaptation of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” premiered Friday on Netflix. “The Piano Lesson” is set in 1939 and centers Boy Willie (John David Washington), who travels from Mississippi to Pittsburgh with his friend Lymon (Ray Fisher) to sell watermelons and convince his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) to sell their family heirloom,

When I started to watch The Piano Lesson, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had only read a vague synopsis of the plot—a tale about a Black family's relationship with a special heirloom during the aftermath of the Great Depression.

The latest adaptation of August Wilson's acclaimed play, "The Piano Lesson," premiered on Netflix , brings the powerful narrative to a new audience.