Review: ‘Mountaintop’ in Oakland relies on warts-and-all look at MLK Jr.
It seems that no one can agree on who “the real MLK” was.
In the 58 years since his assassination, the late Dr. King has been wanted by the FBI and lauded on FBI social media accounts every January. He’s a hero to many, a weak-willed pacifist to some and a radical instigator to others. His name is frequently evoked by conservative pundits, despite King calling rioting “the language of the unheard.”
Nearly six decades after his passing, a consensus about one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement remains elusive.
Playwright Katori Hall didn’t make the debate any easier with her 2009 magical-realist work, “The Mountaintop,” currently being produced through this weekend by Oakland Theater Project. Hall’s controversial script tries to strip away the idealized MLK in favor of a flawed chain-smoker with the world’s largest chip on his shoulder. He appears sincere in his convictions, but is shameless in his vices. He’s a smart man with wandering eye, but only shows the former.
We find this King (played by William Thomas Hodgson, company co-artistic director) in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel on April 3, 1968. He doesn’t know everything will change tomorrow, he’s justtrying to finish his speech to the striking sanitation workers. Tired from travel, he’s eager for coffee; room service sends it to him via waitress Camae (Sam Jackson). He catches her attention because he’s famous; she catches his for other reasons.
Suddenly, the good reverend is willing to pause his work to talk with the pretty woman who walked through the rain. She’s surprised to see the man behind the headlines. Then again, she isn’t what she seems either.
It’s no wonder Hall’s play is so controversial, given the liberal artistic license it takes with King’spersonality. A dramatist often has to fill in the blanks of a subject’s private life, but Hall’s King iseven more unorthodox than the n-word-dropper from the “Boondocks” episode “Return of theKing.” This version angrily resents Malcolm X and the Black Panthers for, in his eyes, playinginto White America’s fears of “angry negroes.”
This historically dubious King seems designed to have a foil in Camae, an unabashedly radical Black woman who believes the time for talk has passed. She’s a retroactive Black feminist voice in an era that rarely had let those voices be promoted.
Historians may still raise their eyebrows at Hall, but the continued allure of the play isthat it understands how dry history rarely makes for compelling drama. Why else would the playtake such a surreal turn in its second-half?
Said turn is foreshadowed in Sam Fehr’s remarkably-designed Room 306. It resembles a marbledgravesite, with King’s tombstone standing prominently upstage as a foreboding totem. The graveitself is a bed of white silk and feathers; a comfortable tomb, if nothing else. The few hotel-specific accoutrement present — hat rack, telephone, chairs — feel like transitional items to easeone through their departure. That’s the point.
As skillfully directed by James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran, Hodgson and Jacksonmake fine tennis opponents. Jackson has always been a wonderfully “present” performer,projecting keen awareness of everyone in the room and the situation they’re in. In hindsight, that gives Camae an early advantage over King, but Jackson doesn’t show her cards too early.
That’s why it’s organic when Camae, like Fehr’s set, shows a frightening familiarity about the situation she and King’s occupy. The diminutive Hodgson seems an unconventional choice for the iconic MLK, but the gifted actor has the voice and grace of a convincing orator. What’s more, his behind-the-scenes portrayal of King lets one believe that a ladies’ man and devout reverend could be one in the-same.
OTP shows frequently lean on a dreamlike quality, which can be just as much of a boon as aburden. Doing so early here doesn’t subvert the controversy of Hall’s script, but finds its heart.The play is freed from the confines of time and space, spinning a yarn that’s equally esoteric andgrounded. After all, the show is performed in the former garage of an art supply store (on MartinLuther King Way, no less).
For 90 engrossing minutes, we get to forget our own surroundings and dream of one of the most important nights in American history.
Charles Lewis III claims to be an award-nominated journalist, culture critic, and performing artist born and raised in San Francisco. He alleges to have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, the San Francisco Examiner, and many more. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.
‘THE MOUNTAINTOP’
By Katori Hall, presented by Oakland Theater Project
Through: Feb. 15
Where: FLAX art and design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $10-$70; oaklandtheaterproject.org