Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.They must be breaking out the champagne in the Washington family this month. Denzel Washington comprehensively stole the imperial laurels with his performance in Gladiator II, and he has also produced The Piano Lesson, directed by one of his sons, Malcolm Washington, and starring another, John David Washington. It is adapted from the 1987 play by August Wilson; several cast members here, including Washington and Samuel L Jackson, appeared in the 2022 Broadway production.The setting is Pittsburgh in 1936, and the home of Doaker Charles (Jackson), who is visited by his nephew Boy Willie (Washington), up from Mississippi with big plans. He intends to buy the land where his ancestors were slaves, and hopes to raise the money by selling the piano that is a family heirloom. But the instrument, carved with images of historic suffering, has a quasi-sacred significance for Willie\u2019s sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler).The dualities may seem schematic \u2014 north\/south, rural\/urban, past\/future \u2014 but the drama brings them alive through crackling dialogue, vivid characterisation, even a flourish of the supernatural, finally going full Gothic. The performances are superb: Washington\u2019s Willie in turns genial, brash and desperate, with winning support from Ray Fisher as his gauche sidekick Lymon, and Michael Potts as Wining Boy, a sort of disillusioned jazz Falstaff. It\u2019s also a pleasure to see Jackson \u2014 the original stage Willie \u2014 shedding his familiar persona in this relaxed, wry performance. But it is Deadwyler \u2014 the star of 2022\u2019s Till \u2014 who really stands out with her elusive but ultimately fiery Berniece.Despite some awkward opening-out \u2014 including\u00a0atmospheric\u00a0flashbacks and a zippy but incongruous dancehall interlude \u2014 this essentially remains a stage play, and you can\u2019t help wishing that director Malcolm Washington had fully embraced the logic of the original. As with so many plays adapted for screen, it\u2019s the enclosure that really holds you.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606In cinemas now and on Netflix from November 22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.They must be breaking out the champagne in the Washington family this month. Denzel Washington comprehensively stole the imperial laurels with his performance in Gladiator II, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-149164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149166,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149164\/revisions\/149166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}