It seems no one can agree on who the “real MLK” was.
In the 58 years since he was killed, the late Dr. King was wanted by the FBI and praised on FBI social media every January. He is a hero to many, a pacifist to others and a great motivator to others. His name is often evoked by conservative pundits, despite King calling the conflict “an unheard language.”
Nearly sixty years after his death, consensus about one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement remains elusive.
Playwright Katori Hall did not make light of the debate about her 2009 seminal work, “Mountaintop,” which is currently being produced this weekend by the Oakland Theater Project. Hall’s controversial script attempts to strip the beloved MLK in favor of a flawed smoker with the world’s biggest chip on his shoulder. He seems sincere in his beliefs, but he is not ashamed of his bad deeds. He is a wise man with wandering eyes, but he shows only the former.
We find this Lord (played by William Thomas Hodgson, director of the art company) in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel on April 3, 1968. He doesn’t know that everything will change tomorrow, he just showed up.
trying to end his speech with the striking sanitation workers. Tired of walking, longing for coffee; room service sends it to waiter Camae (Sam Jackson). He attracts attention because he is famous; he holds his own for other reasons.
Suddenly, a handsome pastor is willing to stop his work to talk to a beautiful woman who walked in the rain. He is surprised to see this man behind the headlines. Then again, he’s not what he seems either.
It’s no wonder Hall’s play is so controversial, given the liberal artistic license it takes with King’s.
humanity. The dramatist usually has to fill in the blanks of the subject’s private life, but Hall’s King
more unusual than the n-word-dropper from the “Boondocks” episode “Return of the
The king.” This version infuriates Malcolm X and the Black Panthers because, in his eyes, they are joking
in White America’s fear of “angry negroes.”
This historically questionable king seems designed to have a foil in Camae, a shameless black woman who believes the time for speaking has passed. She is the voice of Black women going back to an era that rarely allowed those voices to be developed.
Historians may still raise their eyebrows at the Hall, but the appeal of this game continues
that it understands that dry history rarely makes compelling drama. Why not play
taking such a surreal turn in its second half?
Said Turn is featured in Sam Fehr’s stunningly designed Room 306. It’s like marble
tomb, with the King’s tombstone standing prominently on top like a foreboding totem. The grave
itself a bed of silk and white feathers; a comfortable grave, if nothing else. A few hotels –
some existing accoutrement – hat rack, phone, seats – sounds like replacements for convenience
another by their departure. That’s the point.
As expertly directed by James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran, Hodgson and Jackson
make good tennis opponents. Jackson has always been an amazing “present” player,
expressing a deep awareness of everyone in the room and their situation. In retrospect, that gives Camae a better chance than King, but Jackson doesn’t show his cards too early.
That’s why it’s organic when Camae, like Fehr’s set, shows a frightening familiarity with the situation she and King are in. The diminutive Hodgson seems an odd choice for an iconic MLK, but the gifted actor has the voice and grace of a persuasive speaker. In addition, his portrayal behind the King’s platform makes one believe that a ladies’ man and a devout pastor can be one and the same.
OTP shows usually a dependence on a dream-like quality, which can be very beneficial as a
burden. Doing so early here doesn’t detract from the tension of Hall’s script, but it does get to your heart.
The game is freed from the constraints of time and space, spinning a thread that is equally esoteric as well
the foundation. After all, the exhibition was held in the former garage of an art store (in Martin
Luther King Way, no less).
For 90 fascinating minutes, we forget our surroundings and dream of the most important night in American history.
Charles Lewis III is an award-winning journalist, cultural commentator, and performing artist born and raised in San Francisco. He claims to have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, San Francisco Examiner, and many others. A damning proof of this can be found in The Thinking Man’s Idiot.
‘THE MOUNTAIN’
By Katori Hall, presented by Oakland Theater Project
By using: February 15
Where: FLAX Art and Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland
Working time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $10-$70; oaklandtheaterproject.org
