The Piano Lesson

Act One

Scene 1

Boy Willie and his friend Lymon come pounding on the door at dawn and wake up Boy Willie’s uncle, Doaker, who let’s them in. Boy Willie hasn’t been around for three years because he’s been in the Parchman Prison Farm. Against Doaker’s warnings, Boy Willie wakes up his sister, Berniece, who comes down the stairs, angry about all the noise so early in the morning. Boy Willie takes no time to tell them that the Ghosts of the Yellow Dog has killed Sutter, the family who owned the Charles family during slavery. They heard that he fell down a well, so Boy Willie and Lymon came with a truck full of watermelons to sell to buy back Sutter’s land. Berniece exits back up the stairs after attempting and failing to kick Boy Willie and Lymon out of her house, and Boy Willie reveals to Doaker that he also came to sell their piano and use that money (on top of the money they make off the watermelons) to buy Sutter’s land. Doaker insists that Berniece will not let him sell the piano,