‘The Mountaintop’ Paints a Timeless Portrait of Dr. King and the Dream of Civil Rights

Ashley Graham and Caiel Noble on “The Mountaintop,” streamed by The Roustabouts, The American History Theater and Teenage Youth Performing Arts Theater Company

He may have been a martyr, but he wasn’t a saint.

Martin Luther King Jr. deviated from his marriage. He had smelly feet and holes in his socks. He was vain, scared, sometimes paranoid. But his dream was pure and heartfelt.

We see and learn all of this in The Mountaintop, the 2009 Katori Hall drama set in room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on the night before the civil rights icon was assassinated.

The previous evening he had given a memorable speech in support of the striking plumbing workers in Memphis. In his conclusion, he said deliberately, “I was on the mountaintop … and I saw the promised land. I may not come there with you. “

When we meet him in his shabby motel room, he’s exhausted, hoarse, and desperately longs for coffee and a cigarette. He’s trying to figure out how dangerous he should be in tomorrow’s speech, starting with “Why America Goes to Hell”. (“They’re really going to burn me on a cross for this one,” he chuckles).

Then an attractive young girl comes in with room service. She drinks coffee, and he just happens to be smoking Pall Mall.

He gives this to her again (more than once). You flirt. They have a pillow fight. He might be inclined to take things further, but they both pull back, though she claims it wasn’t very sacred either.

And then they lively discuss the best way for their people. She even puts on his jacket and shoes and gives a fiery speech (“Today is the day when I tell you to kill the white man. Not with a gun; with your thoughts”).

While he disagrees with her tactics (if she were a man, he says she would be Malcom X), he likes her sense of humor (“morbid, like mine”). They talk about mortality and death.

She calms him down when the storm rages outside with thunder and light, which makes him fall to the ground and grabs his chest – and for that moment exclaims eerily: “I can’t breathe.”

She seems to know a lot about him. She even calls him by his real Christian childhood name, Michael. (He recorded ‘Martin Luther’ when he was young). At some point, skeptical because she knows too much, he thinks she is a spy who works for the FBI.

There’s kind of a luscious twist that would be a terrible spoiler.

But the main point of the piece is to show the man behind the model – smelly feet, holey socks and everything. Humanize, preach, preacher and dreamers humanize.

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The play is a fantasy, a very effective and enlightening one, in which King gets a glimpse into the future of the civil rights movement and the plight of blacks in America. The exciting montage of archive photos and film material leads him to George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and Kamala Harris. This vision of what is to come forces him to reflect on his fate and legacy.

Not only is this an ideal time to revisit the play, but it is produced appropriately: as a collaboration between three theaters – one established (The Roustabouts) and two younger companies – it is mentored through the process (The American History Theater) and the Teenage Youth Performing Arts Theater Company).

The American History Theater actually owned the rights to the play, and its artistic director, Kandace Crystal, skilfully directed this production.

Caiel Noble, who is well educated but surprisingly makes his professional theatrical debut, is honored as a Dr. King and exudes all the passion and strength as well as the fear and anger of the great man.

Ashley Graham, a South Carolina actor / instructor who has performed on several local stages (Coronado Playhouse, Trinity Theater), strikes an absolutely perfect tone as a maid. She has the accent and attitude, the playfulness, strength and dedication for her job.

As a side note, maid Carrie Mae was named after the playwright’s mother to give her the opportunity to “be” with Martin Luther King in the same room she turned down years ago. As a young girl in Memphis, her grandmother did not allow her to hear him speak because violence was possible.

The production design (Reiko Huffman) is detailed and compelling, and the shooting is expert (the DP / editor is seven-time Emmy Award winner Michael Brueggemeyer).

Twelve years after the piece was written, more than 50 years after MLK passed away, society doesn’t seem too advanced and equality is harder than ever.

That makes the piece contemporary – and unfortunately timeless. We could get another Dr. Need King, a powerful spokesman and recognized leader. He or she is safe out there. We just have to keep the faith – and keep fighting for equal rights.

• “The mountain peak,A streamed collaboration between The Roustabouts Theater Co., the American History Theater and Teenage Youth Performing Arts can be viewed online from April 24th to May 16th. The show is subtitled.
• Tickets ($ 25 to $ 100 per household), available upon request, are available at www.themountaintopsd.org
• Running time: 90 min.

Pat Launer, a member of the American Theater Critics Association, is a longtime San Diego arts writer and an Emmy Award-winning theater critic. An archive of their previews and reviews can be found at patlauner.com.

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