The first trailer for The Piano Lesson dropped this morning. Adapted from playwright August Wilson, making it the third of his The American Century Cycle to be adapted for the big screen, The Piano Lesson marks the directorial debut of Malcolm Washington. Wilson’s work of 10 plays documents a different decade over the 20th century that highlights the Black Experience,  The Piano Lesson is set in post-Depression-era 1936 Pittsburgh. Following the Charles family, they are wrestling with their ancestral legacy and with the intergenerational trauma of slavery via a rousing debate about whether to sell their most prized possession—the family’s piano.

Described as “the most cinematic in scope” of Wilson’s film adaptation, Washington has assembled a stunning cast with his brother John David Washington, Ray Fisher, and Samuel L. Jackson, who were all three in the 2022 Tony-nominated Broadway revival of the play. With the additional cast of Corey Hawkins and Danielle Deadwyler joining the film.

Washington opens up the living room setting of the play for the screen playing around with time and history to transport audiences back to the night the piano was shaken leading to generations of trauma within the Charles family in a ghost story fashion. Exploring themes of intergenerational dynamics of identity, resilience, and transcendence, it is a work on how we perceive the past and how our legacies are defined.

The Piano Lesson will play in select theaters starting November 8th The film hits Netflix on November 22nd.