BY ALISE CHAFFINS
What was going through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mind the night before he was assassinated? West Virginia Public Theatre is back for its 2023 season with playwright Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop” with the hopes of engaging the audience with some answers to that question.
Director Mya Brown said she is excited to share this play because she believes it offers a humanizing view of King.
“We’re seeing him through a lens that, historically, the nation has not provided for us,” Brown said. “It humanizes him and makes him more relatable. I think that’s important because if we can see ourselves in him, then we can also see ourselves doing the kind of great acts that he was able to do.”
The play takes place in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, the night before King’s assassination following his famous “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech. The conversation about the coming events takes place between King and an angel disguised as a maid, named Camae.
Geoffrey Williams, who portrays King in the play, grew up in Atlanta, Ga., so he is intimately familiar with King’s work — both through his own studies, and through speaking with people who knew him.
When asked what it’s like to play a historical figure of so much importance, Williams said the key is balancing his image with his humanity.
“It’s a daunting task because you have this massive image of a human being who has done so many things and has been so many things for so many people,” he said. “But at the end of the day, he is just a man.”
Williams continued, “My challenge is to get to the truth of the man outside of the white gaze. There is a particular gaze put upon the image and it’s to Mya’s credit that once you strip away that gaze and you get to his humanity, at the most common level, we are all the same. We all have a potential for greatness. And part of that greatness starts with love. And that’s the most important thing about this play: it’s a love story to humanity and Dr. King.”
Willa Bost, who plays Camae, echoed those thoughts.
“I want the audience to see the humanity in the hero,” she said. “I want it to light a spark in them so they can take away something they can do in the community and let it spread like wildfire. That’s how we can make change globally.”
Bost is also excited for people to meet the character of Camae.
“She challenges assumptions. She matches King a lot with her quick wit and challenges him. And her presence in the play represents a lot of the unsung heroes, particularly women, in the civil rights movement.”
Brown said the play is written with a blend of realism and magic that makes it more contemporary than some other plays written about King.
The play includes projections, sound design elements, lighting design elements and scenic elements that feel magical, which she believes will resonate with a contemporary audience while blending with the period piece.
The play premiered in London in 2010, then moved to the United States in 2011, where it starred Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.
It has had consistent showings throughout the world, garnering critical acclaim.
Quoting James Baldwin, Brown said, “‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ I think that’s what this play does. It faces all of the atrocities and all of the victories. And because it faces those things, we can continue to make change for the better.”
