Every so often a play emerges on the London fringe to such rapturous notices that its transfer to the West End is almost a necessity. Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, which premiered at Theatre503 earlier this summer, is one such production.
Set on a tempestuous night in a Memphis hotel room, with the weather’s unstoppable force punctuating the action, it imagines the final evening of Martin Luther King before his assassination. The great civil rights campaigner does not spend it alone, but in the company of cute hotel maid Camae, reflecting on his life and his achievements.
In David Harewood’s Martin Luther King and Lorraine Burroughs’s Camae, The Mountaintop has arguably two of the most charismatic performances in London. Harewood’s King, enriched with the pastor’s unmistakable, tuneful vibrato, is a constant orator, his words engaging and enlivening whether practising an address or calling for a coffee. Burroughs’s enigmatic Camae, not intimidated by one of the most famous and influential men in American history, is forthright with her views in the most innocently endearing fashion, wide-eyed and self-assured without any unattractive arrogance.
To describe too much of Hall’s play would be to give away its secret, but the 90-minute meeting between King and Camae explores the flaws in the man fighting for good, exposing the humanity behind the leader, his fears and paranoia. Yet it also has a rich comic vein running through its heart, whether from Camae’s mouth, as filthy as an overused cesspit, or from Harewood’s wry glances, sweaty feet or sexy smoking.
It is a touch surprising that a play so intrinsically linked to the history of the US received its world premiere on the London stage, but with Broadway producers attached to the West End transfer, it can’t be long before this charismatic, engaging, amusing and thought-provoking piece takes a bow stateside. For seven weeks of the British summer, however, it will be one of the most talked about productions in the London.
MA