American playwright Katori Hall’s new play is an imagining of the last night in the life of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King. 

The Mountaintop is set on 3 April 1968. After giving his legendary ‘I have been to the mountaintop’ speech, King retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. When room service is delivered by a young woman whose identity we puzzle over, King is forced to confront his past, as well as his legacy to his people.

In this premiere production of The Mountaintop, which transfers from Theatre503 after an acclaimed run, King is played by David Harewood who, in addition to his many stage roles including the title role of Othello at the National Theatre, has been seen on screen in the film Blood Diamond. Later this year he will appear as Nelson Mandela in BBC drama Mrs Mandela.

Harewood is joined in The Mountaintop by Lorraine Burroughs, who has worked on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Tricycle theatre and Hampstead theatre.

Playwright Hall was born in Memphis and studied playwriting at the Julliard School in New York, winning the prestigious 2009/10 Playwrights Of New York (PONY) Fellowship.

For more about The Mountaintop at the Trafalgar Studio 1, read the First Night Feature.