The Piano: Ada makes a deal

The Piano is partly a story about power, of course. Ada is ostensibly a person with very little power – but that’s not quite true, as we see in this scene in which she withholds affection from Stewart – to whom she’s married – and trades her physical self to meet Baines’s desires for her own goals. Stewart pays in loneliness for stealing her piano and selling it to Baines. Baines paid for it with land he 'obtained’ from the Maori. In both cases, the rights of ownership are contestable.

There’s a distinction made here also between the physical self and the emotional self. We see the latter in the way Ada tells the story to her daughter, with a kind of poetic, ecstatic expression of her private self. That same expression comes to her when she plays the piano. Her physical self may be traded – in marriage or a bargain – but not her inner spiritual self – at least not to a man of no sensitivity such as Stewart. Initially, she will not give Baines anything of her inner self either, although she responds to his directness. He at least concedes that she has some power in the relationship.

The Piano Synopsis

n the mid-19th Century, a sailing ship deposits a young Scottish woman on a beach in New Zealand, with her daughter, her trunks and a crated piano. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) has not spoken since she was six, but her piano playing is passionate and expressive. Ada communicates with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) through her own sign language; Flora interprets this for others, adding her own layer of fantasy as she sees fit.

Ada has been married in absentia to Mr Stewart (Sam Neill), a man she has never met. He lives on a farm that barely exists. Against her strong protest, Stewart insists they leave the piano on the beach, because the Maori carriers can’t bring everything. A few weeks later, Ada persuades the neighbour, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), to take her back to the beach, where she plays the piano till nightfall. Baines pays the bemused Maoris to bring the piano to his makeshift house, trading it for some land that Stewart wants. Ada is incensed, but Baines offers her a deal: she can buy the piano back, key by key, in return for certain favours. At first, he just listens to her playing; then he asks her to remove items of clothing, then he touches her while she plays. Ada continues to refuse her new husband’s sexual advances, but she negotiates those of Baines.

Before she has bought the whole piano back, Baines sends it to her house. He is in love and regrets asking her to submit to his deal. Ada then gives herself willingly to him, unaware that her husband is outside the hut, watching. The angry Stewart tries to rape her. He locks her in his house, boarding up the windows. She agrees not to see Baines, but she sends the child to him, with a message of her love, carved into a piano key. Flora takes the message to Stewart instead. His vengeance is swift and terrible. Baines takes Ada and Flora away, with the piano. On a long Maori canoe, Ada tells Baines to throw her beloved piano overboard.

The Piano curator's notes

n the mid-19th Century, a sailing ship deposits a young Scottish woman on a beach in New Zealand, with her daughter, her trunks and a crated piano. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) has not spoken since she was six, but her piano playing is passionate and expressive. Ada communicates with her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) through her own sign language; Flora interprets this for others, adding her own layer of fantasy as she sees fit.

Ada has been married in absentia to Mr Stewart (Sam Neill), a man she has never met. He lives on a farm that barely exists. Against her strong protest, Stewart insists they leave the piano on the beach, because the Maori carriers can’t bring everything. A few weeks later, Ada persuades the neighbour, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), to take her back to the beach, where she plays the piano till nightfall. Baines pays the bemused Maoris to bring the piano to his makeshift house, trading it for some land that Stewart wants. Ada is incensed, but Baines offers her a deal: she can buy the piano back, key by key, in return for certain favours. At first, he just listens to her playing; then he asks her to remove items of clothing, then he touches her while she plays. Ada continues to refuse her new husband’s sexual advances, but she negotiates those of Baines.

Before she has bought the whole piano back, Baines sends it to her house. He is in love and regrets asking her to submit to his deal. Ada then gives herself willingly to him, unaware that her husband is outside the hut, watching. The angry Stewart tries to rape her. He locks her in his house, boarding up the windows. She agrees not to see Baines, but she sends the child to him, with a message of her love, carved into a piano key. Flora takes the message to Stewart instead. His vengeance is swift and terrible. Baines takes Ada and Flora away, with the piano. On a long Maori canoe, Ada tells Baines to throw her beloved piano overboard.

Notes by Paul Byrnes