A powerful exploration of the legacy of slavery in America, The Piano Lesson centers on a brother and sister in 1930s Pittsburgh as they argue over whether to sell the family piano, an instrument tainted by the wages of slavery. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1990.

The play is part of August Wilson's Century Cycle, his epic dramatization of the African American experience in the twentieth century.

This edition includes a foreword by Toni Morrison.