The Mountaintop
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Exactly one year ago, I stood in that crumbling pulpit in Riverside and shouted that this war would be our own violent undoing, freedom's suicide . . . Well, I'll tell you, there weren't too many Amens that Sunday. But who is a man who does not speak his mind? He is not a man, but I am a man.
The night before his assassination, King retires to room 306 in the now-famous Lorraine Motel after giving an acclaimed speech to a massive church congregation. When a mysterious young maid visits him to deliver a cup of coffee, King is forced to confront his past and the future of his people.
Portraying rhetoric, hope and ideals of social change, The Mountaintop also explores being human in the face of inevitable death. The play is a dramatic feat of daring originality, historical narration and triumphant compassion.
This Modern Classics edition of the play features a foreword by Michael Eric Dyson and an introduction by Faedra Chatard Carpenter, Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Theatre, University of Maryland.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hall crafts a fascinating look at the final hours of Martin Luther King Jr. in this fictional dramatization of the evening before he was assassinated. King opens up about his inner demons and his legacy as he debates with Camae, a hotel staff member whom he bonds with over the course of the play. Performed in front of a live audience, the production never misses a beat and flows effortlessly for the full emotionally intense hour. Actor Larry Powell captures King's power, vulnerability, and hubris, while actress Aja Naomi King (who starred in the 2016 film The Birth of a Nation) projects just as much presence and intensity. Integrated throughout the performance, the sound design propels the narrative forward without interrupting it, and the aural montage in the final moments of the production will move listeners to tears with its blending of past and present, dynamic use of call and response, and the ceaseless vocal drive of actress King as Camae.
