"During my teen years, Dr. Martin Luther King was admired for his non-violent resistance to the impossibly unjust treatment of Blacks in our country. But, like all mankind, he struggled with his own imperfections until his assassination April 4, 1968. Then, miraculously the imperfect husband and father disappeared as he became the courageous martyr who laid down his life so that others might be free. Oakland Theater Project, however, brings King's humanity with all its foibles back in Katori Hall's powerful two-person play The Mountaintop."
"The playwright reimagines the night before King's death as she reveals the often-fragile man beneath the icon. King has just delivered one of his famous sermons and has retired to his motel room in Memphis. When the appealing maid brings his coffee order to his room, he asks her to stay for a while, and so begins Hall's electrifying version of King's final night."
"Co-directors James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran create a physical environment that engages audience members from the moment they enter the theater. With music of the period softly filling the intimate space and projections of King as well as newsreels from the '60s enveloping the back wall, the audience finds itself transported back to that turbulent time. A time that, unfortunately, has much in common with today's headlines."
Katori Hall's The Mountaintop reimagines the night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and reveals a fragile, complex man beneath the icon. King returns to a Memphis motel after delivering a sermon; when a maid brings his coffee, he invites her to stay and their intimate exchange unfolds across one electrifying night. Co-directors James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran create an immersive setting with period music, projections, and newsreels. Sam Fehr's set centers a sunken feather bed and an oversized grave marker. William Thomas Hodgson and Sam Jackson give charismatic, relatable performances that humanize King and link 1960s turmoil to contemporary headlines.
Read at www.eastbaytimes.com
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