American playwright Katori Hall’s new play about the last night of Martin Luther King, The Mountaintop, is to transfer to Trafalgar Studio 1 from 16 July (press night 20 July) following its critically acclaimed premiere at Theatre503.
Hall’s two-hander is set on 3 April 1968, the night before the assassination of civil rights leader King in Memphis. After giving his legendary ‘I have been to the mountaintop’ speech to a massive church congregation, King retires to room 306 in the now famous Lorraine Motel in Memphis. When room service is delivered by beautiful young chambermaid Camae, King is forced to confront his past as well as his legacy to his people.
On its premiere at Battersea fringe venue Theatre503 in June, Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph described The Mountaintop as “nothing short of a triumph”, adding: “It’s rare to find writing this accomplished on the fringe; I only hope someone moves heaven and earth to transfer The Mountaintop to a bigger space in town post-haste.”
The Mountaintop stars David Harewood as King and Lorraine Burroughs as Camae. Harewood has played leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, while his screen work includes the film Blood Diamond and television outings in Robin Hood, The Palace, Criminal Justice and Mrs Mandela, the BBC drama to be screened later this year in which he plays Nelson Mandela. RADA graduate Burroughs’s stage credits include Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe, Fabulation and The War Next Door at the Tricycle theatre and Anna In The Tropics at the Hampstead theatre. She has been seen on television in Spooks: Code 9 and All About George.
Young director James Dacre directs the pair in Memphis-born, Juilliard School-graduate Hall’s 90-minute piece, which is booking to 5 September at Trafalgar Studio 1.
The venue is currently dark following the closure of The Last Cigarette on 23 May.
CB