“Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.”

Opening to the “I’ve Been to The Mountaintop” sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Katori Hall’s deceptively simple play “The Mountaintop” imagines who he was talking about.

"The Mountaintop" first opened in London's West End in 2009, receiving the prestigious Olivier Best New Play Award. It is now receiving a spectacular mounting by Invictus Theatre Company under the watchful direction of Aaron Reese Boseman.

The premise is simple, In Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers, Martin Luther King Jr. (Mikhá el Amin) has returned to his room at the Lorraine Motel after delivering his “I’ve Been to The Mountaintop” speech. He has sent Ralph Abernathy to the store for Pall Mall cigarettes. While waiting for his cigarettes, he works on a new speech “Why America is Going to Hell”. Frustrated, he places a telephone call to the front desk asking for room service to bring him a cup of coffee. When Camae (Ny’ ajai Ellison) knocks on the door with coffee, cigarettes, whiskey, body and personality, the play kicks into its next gear. At this time in the civil rights struggle, King was known for his womanizing, the FBI had him under surveillance, and he was fatigued and full of self-doubt. Is it possible Camae was sent to entrap King?

If only it were that simple.

The chemistry between King and Camae is palpable, thanks to Hall's clever writing and Boseman's pas de deux directing technique.

Amin was born to play the role of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Not only is there a slight resemblance to King, he also speaks and delivers words evoking how the real-life King spoke. It is obvious Amin studied King to wonderful results. Amin is too fine an actor to resort to mimicry. There are times we see a near-broken man, so haunted by death threats that every peal of thunder outside the motel causes a panic attack. We see a vanity in King that seems honest.  Amin’s depiction of King is strongest when he expresses his fears, anxieties, and desires. One of Amin’s most powerful scenes as King features him on a telephone call. It's heart wrenching to watch him plead and rationalize. It’s a garden of Gethsemane moment. To say anymore would spoil the beauty.

Ellison is spot on casting for the role of Camae. When she says “Preacher Kang” she tells us a world of what we need to know about Camae. Ellison’s Camae is eloquent but mouthy, sensitive yet crude, blatantly sexual yet resistive to King's urgings, skeptical about nonviolence and instead sympathetic to the Black Power ideology of Malcolm X. Ellison’s Camae is every bit a match for Amin’s King. She provides a comedic foil to Amin’s serious King. During the night, they challenge each other, They talk about the future; they talk about the past; they talk about politics, and she is just too many wonderful things. Ellison’s most impactful acting comes at a serious moment involving Camae's background story. Her story is powerful and one that will linger in the memory.

Scenic Designer Kevin Rolfs has created an accurate recreation of room 306 of the Lorraine Motel down to the original 1960’s color scheme. Liz Cooper’s Lighting Design worked well with Warren Levon’s thunder and ambient rain sounds that runs throughout the production. Thunder and lightning serve as punctuation for important lines of dialog.

The projection and special effects designer DJ Douglass is masterful in his execution. Together this design team changes a simple hotel room into something magnificent.

Highly Recommended —The Mountaintop reminds us that even our icons are human. We are all kings and King is all of us. "This baton is no longer the burden my image can bear," he says. "For you are the climbers, the new carriers of the cross. I beg you, implore you, don't give in and toss it off."

Side note:  

This is just another example of the excellence coming from Invictus Theatre Company. They constantly exceed their reach. I have to remind myself this is a storefront theatre.    

Performed at Reginald Vaughn Theatre through March 19th. For tickets and/or more show info, click here.