The Mountaintop
Royal Exchange Theatre
Manchester
 

ON April 3 1968 Martin Luther King Jnr (MLK) addressed a rally in support of  black sanitation workers on strike in Memphis.

The rally was part of a nationwide tour in support of the “Poor People’s Campaign.” The multi-racial campaign was established to fight for economic and social justice across the States.

Recognising that black civil rights was impossible under the political and economic system in the US, MLK broadened his campaign to include support for the anti-Vietnam war movement and to argue for socialism. The following night while standing on the balcony outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel he was shot dead.

Katori Hall’s play The Mountaintop imagines an encounter between King and the straight-talking Camae, who works as a maid at the motel. Forthright and brutally honest, Camae forces Dr King to re-evaluate his hopes and dreams for a future America free of inequality.

The actors, newcomer Ntombizodwa Ndlovu as Camae and Adetomiwa Edun as King, are both extraordinary. Ndlovu gives a wonderfully sassy Camae full of bravado and down-to-earth honesty. She is comfortable removing the great Dr King from his pedestal and exposing his frailties and contradictions.

She does this in a way that leaves his vision and achievements intact, reminding us that despite the idolisation our heroes are just human.

Edun wears the cloak of King with great assurance. It can be dangerous for an actor to portray a real-life icon but Edun takes it in his stride and gives us a rounded picture of a man driven by his mission, while at the same time troubled by uncertainty, vulnerability and doubt.

Katori Hall is a very fine playwright, who rightly has received many awards, including this year’s Pulitzer for drama, but like many great black artists and campaigners it is easier to laud them with medals than delivering their simple vision of building a more just and equal society.

Runs until October 27 2021. Tickets.royalexchange.co.uk