Writer: Katori Hall
Director: Rikki Henry
It’s the last night in the life of civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Junior and we’re promised an insight into the flawed human being behind the charismatic personality who delivered the iconic ‘I have a dream’ speech. This might sound familiar, as May Mellstrom reviewed a different production of the same play for this site in October 2021. In fact, The Mountaintop has been around a while; it won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play.
So this in-house revival by the Lyceum comes laden with much investment and expectation. New artistic director James Brining rightly praises the cast for their energy and versatility. Caleb Roberts is Dr King, whom we find alone in his motel room in Memphis late in the evening, working on a speech for the following day. It’s clear that all is not well: he’s coughing a lot and struggles to get around the room.
An inspired set by Hyemi Shin accentuates this. The room is rendered without walls, as a stage upon the stage, but it’s skewed quite steeply to the upstage right corner in an expressionist style, like a wedge. As the action progresses, this suggests mental as well as physical turmoil. Stormy weather effects and subtle music add to the atmosphere of dread as the moment of King’s assassination draws nearer.
The opening portion of the play has him chatting and flirting with Camae (Shannon Hayes), the young maid who’s brought coffee and now shares cigarettes. She’s a supporter of his but shows strong opinions and attitudes of her own, highlighting the gulf in social class that exists between them. Their voices are amplified, but the sound isn’t very clear. In Camae’s case, a lot of her appeal comes from quickfire delivery of witty lines, so this becomes a problem. When she mimics King’s more deliberate and declamatory style, the joke lands better.
There’s an abrupt turn in the plot, which veers into the supernatural. To say much more would be a spoiler, but here the action seems to lose focus, just as it’s supposed to become poignant. The play’s ambition is to build upon King’s legacy by placing a responsibility on each of us to stand up for human rights and justice, which is perfectly laudable, but by the end there’s an overload of rhetoric and it just washes over you.
Runs until 21 June 2025 | Image: Mihaela Bodlovic
The Reviews Hub Score
Worthy but overblown
