Review: THE MOUNTAINTOP at Round House Theatre

The sacred and the secular are merged to show the need for connection in a broken world in playwright Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop in an amazing production at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre. A feminist narrative envelops this beautifully written play that portrays the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of his final day on earth---as the tragic portent of his tragic assassination is conveyed to the consciousness of the audience.

Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg has guided this “two-hander” with deft and penetrating finesse.  Earthy humor (also evident in her Pulitzer-prize winning The Hot Wing King), mysticism, spirituality, and a sense of impending doom are all intertwined ---with a concurrent hope for autonomous moral action--- in this rich and nuanced play by the marvelous and mercurial talent of playwright Katori Hall.  Director Sonnenberg brings out every element in Ms. Hall’s writing with a sense of synergy and spontaneity.

The first half of the play has a more conversational tone as the two characters cajole, talk, encourage, and joke with one another in the careworn Memphis motel. (Nicely functional and atmospheric scenic design by Paige Hathaway). There appears to be a tone of trying to stave off the tragic inevitability of the future by reminiscing about life, discussing the strategies and the struggles of the Civil Rights movement and even flirting with one another in an affectionately teasing fashion.

The second half of the play becomes more expository and declamatory  but has ample virtues to share ---such as the fears of mortality that are consuming King as an almost hallucinogenic “fever dream” of King is played out onstage. King begs for release from his fear of death and is aided by a presence I cannot reveal (for fear of ruining the surprise revelation in the play).

Transcendence from the political pain and fears of the bigotry and hatred that surround them is potently conveyed by the sheer reciprocal intimacy of the two leading actors, who play off each other with zestful and deft skill.

As the Reverend Martin Luther King, Ro Boddie delivers a performance that embodies a strong, passionate man driven by loving compassion as well as by doubt and fear. (St. John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul” often came to my mind for the presence of God could be felt in the doubt and the fear ---). Actor Boddie beautifully portrays the empathy, humor, drive, and compassion of the iconic yet very human Reverend King. It is a masterly performance. As Boddie’s King bargains and negotiates with God to stave off the inevitable tragic finality of physical life and paranoia (a huge, hateful FBI dossier was on file on him), the audience was rapt with attention.

Actor Renea S. Brown as Camae, exudes a confident yet vulnerable air as a worthy friend and, sometimes, an encouraging foil to the proclamations and comments of Boddie’s King. As her character delivers coffee along with much-needed cigarettes for King, there is a sassy generosity of spirit in her free-wheeling (yet technically disciplined) delivery of her retorts and comments (via the open-hearted writing style of Ms. Hall). Ms. Brown possesses a very firm command of stage movement and her character perfectly embellished variegated tones of audacity, charm, defiance, sassy humor and defiance and vulnerability.

King is allowed a brief vision of the “promised land” (that he alluded to in his previous speech to the striking sanitation workers of Memphis in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech) in one of the standout moments in this play. He is allowed to gain a glimpse of this in a moving scene that visually showed the many figures of Black History from the decades following the tragic death of King. (Projections Design by Zavier A.L. Taylor).

This scene, then, opens to a quasi-interactive dropping of the fourth wall of the stage with the audience being preached to by the marvelous Mr. Boddie ---as King, in exhortative fashion –: “The baton may have been dropped, But anyone can pick it back up. I don’t know where in the race we are, but pick up that baton and pass, pass, pass it along!”.

Sound Design by Nick Hernandez is mesmerizing and haunting --especially the sound of rain and thunder enveloping the battered motel (where we see King portrayed as a human being worn down with physical pain but fighting onwards with pride and passion). 

There are several miraculously inventive touches that I dare not mention in this review as they would spoil the mystical and supernatural effect of these little, magical touches. I must credit the Magic coordination work  of Ryan Phillips. 

I do not know if the playwright has been influenced by the work of playwrights Tony Kushner, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson but their incredible ear for colloquial speech, style, intonation, and cadence is decidedly inherent in Ms. Hall’s vibrant, dazzlingly original, and lyrical writing.

Do not miss this highly original and urgent dramatization of the struggle for hope, redemption, justice, and civil rights, with a theatrical view from The Mountaintop.

Running Time: 100 minutes with no intermission

The Mountaintop runs through November 5, 2023, at Round House Theatre located at 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland, 20814.

Photo Credit: Renea S, Brown and Ro Boddie  in Round House Theatre's production of The Mountaintop. Photo by Margot Schulman Photography.

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