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The Mountaintop

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh 

Five stars 

 

The heavens sound like they’re splitting in two at the opening of Katori Hall’s Olivier award winning play, which imagines Martin Luther King’s last night on earth in fantastical fashion. It is April 1968, and Dr King is checking into his regular room in the Memphis hotel room where he’ll meet his maker having just given the speech of his life. As he pretty much crawls through the door exhausted and clearly in pain, all he wants is to have some rest and a cup of coffee from room service. 

 

When a precocious maid called Camae delivers Dr. King’s beverage on what she says is her first day, what appears to be an after hours flirtation takes a startling turn to the celestial as Camae reveals she knows things about King that only his closest intimates are aware of. By the end, King’s status as a reluctant prophet is guaranteed. 

 

Rikki Henry’s revival of Hall’s 2009 play is a sensation. Taking an already remarkable script, Henry and his team throw in a box of tricks that make for a thrilling experience. This is the case for Hyemi Shin’s seismic set as it is for Pippa Murphy’s soundscape that moves from storm battered rumblings to chapel house organ permeating Benny Goodman’s low level mood lighting. 

 

At the show’s heart are two remarkable performances. Caleb Roberts as King presents a powerhouse study of a man much more vulnerable than his public persona suggests, while Shannon Hayes as Camae moves from sassy maid something that defines both parties’ futures.

 

Onstage throughout more than ninety minutes without an interval, the interplay between Roberts and Hayes never lets up in an increasingly wild encounter that builds into an ever more relentless scenario. As King steps out to face his destiny, a barrage of video images accompanies a litany of things to come in a big play with big ideas that shows how history shapes the future in one of the most devastating works you’re likely to witness.


The Herald, June 6th 2025

 

Ends 

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