It’s the night before Martin
Luther King (Samuel L. Jackson) will be shot and killed. We’re in his Memphis
motel room where he waits for a compatriot to return in horrible weather.
Restless and impatient, he calls for room service. And eventually a chamber
maid, Camae (Angela Bassett),
brings coffee. Likewise black (Camae, not the coffee, though perhaps the coffee
too), she of course represents a stark working class contrast to his white
collar position as preacher and political pundit; and these being The
Mountaintop’s only
two characters, playwright Katori Hall is, of course again,
intent on exploring their similarities and points of communion, as well as
their differences.
It’s
a comfortable enough matter of public record by now that in his private life,
King was no saint, and Ms. Hall goes right for the imperfect male behind the
perfect image, and has a good deal of fun with it. The final of course is that Camae is, to paraphrase Yogi Bear, smarter
than the av-er-age maid—or at the very least, more consequential and
connected.
More
than that, one dare not specify for fear of enormous spoilers. Though I’ll
allow myself to suggest that Camae speaks for a middle ground between light
and shadow, between science and superstition, that lies between the pit of
man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.
Yes, it’s that kind of, er, episode. And as such, it’s really, ultimately, an exploration of intent and accomplishment versus
legacy. And as such, it doesn’t say anything terribly profound…but it says it
entertainingly. And under the deft direction of Kenny Leon, the
two stars spark off each other’s considerable wattage very nicely.
In
fact, The Mountaintop is amazingly
effective feelgood Americana propaganda, albeit totally from an African
American perspective, which (I think)
makes it a unique entity in any medium.
And I don’t know if Ms. Hall intended that. But it’s what she has, and it’s appeared at the right
time to do the most good.
Not
many plays manage that trick…
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