The Mountaintop
“‘I’ve been to the mountaintop,” Martin Luther King, Jr., proclaimed in his final speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968. The next day he was assassinated. What took place in the wee hours in-between is the grist for this tough, mesmerizing, and lyrical one-act play featuring two rising stars in American stage and film—Larry Powell and Aja Naomi King. As the mysterious motel maid who appears at Reverend King’s motel door, Aja Naomi King is a force of nature—whispering, cajoling, and calling like a gospel singer to lead the Reverend on a search for his very core as a human being, evoking his pride, humor, and doubts in the process. It’s a transcending, emotional experience for the listener. Contemporary American theater at its best. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. What happened inside room 306 on the evening of April 3 is the subject of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop.
Hours after King’s final speech, punctuated by his immortal line, “I’ve been to the mountaintop,” the celebrated Reverend forms an unlikely friendship with a motel maid as they talk into the early hours of what will be his final day.
An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring Aja Naomi King as Camae and Larry Powell as Dr. Martin Luther King.
Directed by Roger Guenveur Smith
Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at The James Bridges Theater, UCLA, in May of 2016.
Praise