On the heals of seeing another 60's icon, Marilyn Monroe's brush on the afterlife, a few weeks back in Sleep Marilyn and Dream, it is refreshing to see another play going on the journey and focusing on a very timely subject of Class and Poverty as depicted in Katori Hall's 2009 Play ,The Mountaintop, now playing at Seattle's Artswest Playhouse.
The play is a fictional depiction of the Reverend Martin Luther King's last night on earth set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of his assassination on April 4, 1968.
King (the Brilliant, Reginald A. Jackson) is worn down and targeted by Militants as not focusing on the Black Equality as much as the poor and poverty. When a feisty Black maid named Carmae (The sassy, Brianne Hill) shows up at his door in the rain, King as a Man, can not resist her youthful beauty.
As they debate progress and the meaning of life, King becomes Paranoid, when Carmae calls him by his given name of Michael and realizes this is a sign from the great beyond to help him leave this life for the afterlife.
Like with Sleep Marilyn and Dream, Carmae the angel shows that when he is gone, his spirit will remain for decades to come. King is convinced that the baton would stay with him, while Carmae shows him the progress from the Stonewall riots to Obama being elected. (All hauntingly projected on the back wall of the stage). As King stands on the Mountain Top, he is convinced that his life will be over by sunlight.
Of Course, there was a standing O, and may Freedom Ring!
The Mountain Top Continues at ARTSWEST through Oct 5th. Click Here for more.
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