I've Been to the Mountaintop

There are so many ways a play can be good.  There are so many ways a play can be great.  And it really just goes on from there.  I’ve seen a lot of good plays, and great plays, and plays that completely blow me out of the water.  The Mountaintop was in a category that I don’t get to see all the time…it completely took my breath away.  Although the idea and setup were pretty simple, it was something that I haven’t seen in awhile, and I’m sure it’ll be awhile before I get to see something like this again.

The Mountaintop gets a basic summary.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has gone to his hotel room after delivering his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.  He sort of does his thing, all the things anyone would do after something like that.  He sits down, he takes off his shoes, he goes to brush his teeth, only to discover his wife hasn’t packed his toothbrush.  And then he orders a cup of coffee from room service.  What he doesn’t know is that this is the most important call to room service he will ever make in his life.

I think the beauty of this play is that they’re playing with something that is so ordinary, but also so extraordinary.  Like I said, we see King doing the normal things we all do when we get to our room.  But King was a very different person from the rest of us.  It’s one of those things where…we don’t know what happened in his hotel room the night before his death.  It could have been something ordinary, or it could be something extraordinary.  And right there is where we have The Mountaintop.  A short play about King’s final night, and what could have happened.

Okay, so I have to be really careful about what I say here.  Although the run of the play at The Arden is over, someone might see it somewhere else, and I definitely don’t want to spoil anything.  The twist is way too good for that.  It was definitely a part of what left me breathless.  I definitely wasn’t expecting what I saw.  I’m also not entirely sure how I got away with it not being spoiled for me.  But there was so much more to this production than just unexpected moments, and so much more to talk about.

One of the biggest sellers of this show were the actors.  Akeem Davis as King and Kishia Nixon as Camae, the room service maid, were absolutely stunning.  Davis definitely captured the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  He was so perfect for the role…something else that totally took my breath away.  I completely saw the historic figure in him, even the parts that were fictionalized.  I can’t imagine a better actor for the role.  Nixon was fun, and I loved watching her work.  The two of them had amazing chemistry, and worked incredibly well together.  It was the sort of relationship on stage that you have to just have.

The whole thing was pretty simple.  The set was the hotel room King was staying in.  You could see the neon sign from the window, which was a really beautiful touch.  As history dictates, there was a massive storm happening that night, and the sound and light design were really wonderfully done, incorporating strategically placed thunder and lightning.  Not only that, but the characters reacted to the thunder and lightning, which made it even more real.  I’m pretty sure most people couldn’t go through that sort of storm without any reaction.

The Mountaintop played around with so many different ideas, and I really loved that about this show.  As with anything based in history, there are things that we know, and things that we don’t know.  I think it takes a lot of imagination to write something like this…Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous figures in American history, and there is, obviously, so much that we’ll never know about him.  But watching his character play along with the character of Camae seemed so real to me.  It could have happened, as far as I’m concerned.  And that was something else that took my breath away.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell everyone to go out and see The Mountaintop at the Arden, because it closed last Sunday (after a week’s extension on it!)  I’m just extremely grateful that I got the opportunity to see it before it closed…and that was literally the night before.  But I will say, if you ever get the chance to see this show by Katori Hall, do yourself a favor and go see it.  Obviously each production will be a little different from the others, but her words are strong and intense, and the message is strong and intense.  This production was phenomenal and truly took my breath away.

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