Lately it feels like we're a long way from the mountaintop, like we've slid quite a way downhill in the last year, or ten years. But Katori Hall's play
The Mountaintop, about the great Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us that we can never stop climbing, that progress never ends. As Artistry's Artistic Director Kelli Foster Warder noted in her pre-show speech, they could not have known when they programmed this play a year ago how relevant it (and their next two shows -
What the Constitution Means to Me and
In the Heights) would be. Stories about Civil Rights, the constitution that is supposed to protect us all, and an immigrant community, all of which are in danger under the current administration.
The Mountaintop imagines King on the night before his assassination, having a conversation with someone who isn't what she seems, and shows us that he was more than the iconic figure, speech maker, and quote generator we often think of when we hear the name. He was human, with flaws and fears like the rest of us, which means that we too can overcome our flaws and fears and pick up the baton in the race towards justice.
Head to Bloomington before this short run closes on March 1 to experience this inspiring, creatively written, and well told story.
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| Mikell Sapp as Martin Luther King, Jr. (photo by Dan Norman) |
The play opens in a hotel room during a storm, Martin entering and shaking the rain off his coat. He calls room service for coffee, which is delivered by the spunky hotel employee Camae on her first day on the job. The two embark on a frank and informal conversation, about Civil Rights as well as more mundane topics like cigarettes and style choices. It's soon revealed that Camae is not exactly who she says she is, and the play veers into the fantastical world of the imagination, although still grounded in reality. This play shows us that great leaders are not perfect. They have fears, flaws, and stinky feet, just like the rest of us. But yet they persevere and try to improve the world we live in, despite the personal costs.*
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| Tyler Susan Jennings and Mikell Sapp (photo by Dan Norman) |
Warren C. Bowles directs this play that is one long scene, a continuous conversation that never lags. Mikell Sapp gives a powerful performance as Martin Luther King, with the cadence of his speeches and power of his words, but also showing us his humanity as he faces mortality. Tyler Susan Jennings brings lightness and humor to the role of Camae, who is outspoken and not intimidated by this legend. The two have a nice rapport as this unlikely duo.
Scenic designer Michaela Logan and props designer Katie Phillips have created a realistic 1960s hotel room in Artistry's black box space, with two double beds, a table cluttered with coffee cups, and vintage props including a boxy TV and avocado green rotary telephone. The simple period costumes include a conservative suit and maid's uniform (designed by Samantha Fromm Haddow). Sound and lighting design (by C. Andrew Mayer and Jim Eischen) are also very realistic, as the lighting flashes and thunder booms make us jump. The design also hints at Camae's otherworldly nature, as lights flicker and flash. The most powerful moment comes at the end, when Martin asks to see the future that he will not live to experience, and a slideshow of photos and videos lead us from Memphis in 1968 directly to just a few weeks ago in our city, following the trajectory of justice, with two hard-fought steps forward followed by one frustrating step back, over and over.
This play is not just a history lesson that sheds insight into the humanity of an icon, although it is that. It also feels like a call to action, as the baton is handed directly to us to continue the work that MLK left unfinished when he was murdered just outside that motel room.
