Arc Stages Strives for ‘The Mountaintop’ in Return Production
This Friday evening Arc Stages returns from its pandemic-induced performance hiatus, and the production promises to provide three weekends of riveting subject matter.
The Pleasantville-based theater company is presenting “The Mountaintop,” playwright Katori Hall’s fictionalized yet thought-provoking work on the last night of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.
The entire two-character play takes place in his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on the evening of Apr. 3, 1968, the day before his assassination and following his eerily prescient final public address, which has come to be known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
Director Ryan Quinn said the goal of the play, featuring actor Gabriel Lawrence as King and Shavonna Banks as Carrie Mae, a maid who delivers him room service late that evening, isn’t an impersonation but to give greater context to the life and work of the civil rights icon.
Quinn said that Hall has told the story that in her grandmother’s house there were only two photos – of Jesus and King – and one of the playwright’s missions was to take King off the wall and explore the man, not the myth, and where the civil rights movement was headed if history had not intervened.
“It’s pretend, so the goal, again, isn’t an impersonation, the goal is a conversation with an icon of what it is of the person that we bring in to what it is we get to see, and I think you’ll see right away, because the playwright does four things immediately to make us understand him as a man and not as a saint,” Quinn explained.
Hall, a Memphis native who wrote “The Mountaintop” in 2009, has related the story that her mother wanted to go see King speak in his final trip to the city, but that her mother, Hall’s maternal grandmother, refused to let her attend fearing it was too dangerous, according to Quinn. She has woven that into the story as well, he said.
Quinn also said the play continues an important conversation about the civil rights struggle that King was grappling with at the time of his death more than 50 years ago.
“I think we’ve sanitized history, and the vision is beautiful, but he talks so much about complacency, and especially white complacency within the movement, especially where we were at in ’68 after the Civil Rights bill has passed, and we never hear about that,” Quinn said. “But that was really happening at that moment and I think we’re still reconciling about what that presents.”
He hopes that if theater-goers take away anything from the show, it is to challenge everyone about doing the difficult work of achieving greater equality.
Arc Stages Artistic Director Adam Cohen said when he read “The Mountaintop” it was a moving experience for him even before he and Quinn began with auditions. That’s something that often doesn’t happen often, even with outstanding works, until it’s brought to the stage, he said.
“This one hit me on the page,” Cohen said. “I was devastated reading it and laughing and crying, like the person on the page spoke to me so much that I have to do this show.”
After theaters were closed since early 2020 because of COVID-19, it also helps financially that there are only two actors, Cohen said, even though Arc Stages had been able to continue with its Education Stage programs and productions for youngsters.
Moreover, Lawrence and Banks are truthful actors, intensely believable in their roles, he said.
The show runs for seven performances on Friday and Saturday evenings, Oct. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16 with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Oct. 17. All evening performances begin at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $38 for adults, $30 for students and $28 for students. For tickets and more information, visit www.arcstages.org. All patrons must be vaccinated except for children under 12 and those with medical exemptions.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
