By George Basler
The Martin Luther King Jr. in Katori Hall’s play The Mountaintop is not a plaster saint placed on a pedestal. Instead, he’s a man in the midst of a profound psychological crisis as he worries for his life, battles some personal flaws and wonders if his work as a civil rights leader has reached a dead end.
This troubled man is at the center of Hall’s two-character play that opened Oct. 6 for a three-weekend run at the Chenango River Theatre in Greene.
Hall has said her intent was to humanize the great civil rights leader, and the play certainly has some powerful moments. But it’s also an uneven and disjointed effort that veers from realistic biodrama to surrealism and fantasy as it imagines the last night in King’s life.
This is too bad, because the two actors in the Chenango River production — Dominic Carter as King and Georgina Morillo as a maid he encounters on that fateful night — give strong performances under the direction of Adara Alston. Carter catches the essence of King while avoiding an impersonation. Morillo does a fine job in a multi-dimensional role.
Hall is an accomplished playwright whose play The Hot Wing King won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. On Broadway, she most recently wrote and produced the musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. The Mountaintop premiered in London in 2010 before running on Broadway in 2011. The Broadway production, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, received widely mixed reviews.
The play takes place in a room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King is staying while participating in demonstrations supporting the city’s striking garbage workers. After returning exhausted from giving a speech, he asks for some coffee to be delivered to his room. The maid, Camae, shows up with the coffee, explaining this is her first night on the job.
King is in no hurry to send away the young woman. During the first part of the play, they share drinks, banter humorously, flirt and trade observations about the civil rights movement. King, of course, espouses non-violence while Camae is more militant, holding up Malcolm X as an example.
Then, at the midpoint of the play, Hall makes the creative decision to take The Mountaintop in a radically different direction. Realism goes out the window, and surrealism comes walking through the motel room’s door.
The transition is so noticeable that, when The Montaintop appeared on Broadway, the production team asked reviewers not to reveal any plot twists. Let’s just say that Camae isn’t in the motel room to bring King some hot java and fluff the pillows.
The mood shift is jarring as the action becomes increasingly fanciful. King and Camae engage in conversations that play like academic debates as King argues, with a touch of vanity, that his mission is not complete while Camae tells him it’s time to pass the baton.
While some moments are effective, others seemed forced, some almost to the point of being ludicrous. Spoiler alert: King gets on the telephone at one point to plead his case to God, and God hangs up. Hall also resorts to the corny technique of having peals of thunder shake the motel room to illustrate King’s emotional pain and stress.
The play ends with a montage of images, projected on the motel room’s wall, that encapsulate America’s racial history since King’s death. While the images are striking, the conclusion seems tacked on to the play, almost as if Hall l didn’t know how to leave The Mountaintop without resorting to a didactic lecture.
The Chenango River performances, however, remain strong throughout. Carter makes King real and admirable despite his flaws. He is especially effective in playing King’s anger and his “dark night of the soul” moments of despair and questioning.
As Camae, Morillo is spirited and earthy in the first part of the play, and strong and commanding in the second part. Playing the transition is a tall order, and Morillo does so effectively. It’s a well-thought-out portrayal.
Alston does a capable job directing the action, and production quality — set, lighting and sound — is first rate.
Hall has explained her play this way: “A ‘warts-and-all’ portrayal of Dr. King is important because there’s this extraordinary human being who is actually quite ordinary. I feel as though, by portraying him with his flaws and foibles, we can see — as human beings who have these flaws — that we, too, can be Kings. We, too, can carry on that baton that he has passed down to us.” Though the sentiment is commendable, the play, regretfully, is muddled.
IF YOU GO: The Mountaintop will be performed at the Chenango River Theatre through Oct. 22. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. at the theater, 991 State Highway 12, Greene. Tickets are $27 for all performances. The recommended way to buy tickets is at: www.chenangorivertheatre.org. Tickets also can be purchased by calling the 24-hour box office line: 607-656-8499.
Free tickets for high school and college students are available at all evening performances. Email tickets@chenangorivertheatre for reservations, which are required for the free ticket program.
