In a reimagining of the night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop follows Dr. King’s flirtatious encounter with the hotel maid, Camae, that forces him to confront his past, his present and the future of his plight for equality.
The play finds Dr. King stripped from the pedestal of perfection we paint him with. He is flawed, tired and, in every definition, human. Supporting this idea, the narrative impact of the two-hander play format (where both characters are equally important to the progression of the play) invites the levelling of the two characters – in this play Dr. King is no more important than Camae, the hotel maid. Camae, witty and sharp, breathes light into the play. Free from the expectations we burden Dr. King with, Camae is provocative. Her humour is often partnered with heavier and more emotionally raw presentations of the themes of injustice and racism that plagued the civil rights movement.
Supporting this idea of Dr. King as a normal man, comes the harrowing set design by Hyemi Shin. The atmospheric resonance through lighting and intense sound composition crafted an all-encompassing experience. At its centre, sits Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel – a bed, a table, and a television, planted on a large stone that sits on a bed of loose dirt covering the stage. An upright piano and rows of chairs join the set design beyond Room 306 creating a surrealist image of a funeral and of a church service – the crossroads Dr. King finds himself between on his final night.
The Mountaintop is sophisticated and evocative. Caleb Roberts (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) and Shannon Hayes (Camea) delivered memorable performances that electrified audiences. Camea’s final lines were specifically lent to solidifying the beating heart of this play – that this is a fight that does not end with one man but continues across generations. Though heartbreaking, raw and unsettling, Rikki Henry’s directorial emphasis on the metaphor of the relay race, as quoted in the director’s notes, aims to leave the audience with a “renewed sense of responsibility.” The baton is ours to catch.
Image via The Royal Lyceum