The Mountaintop ***(*)

Trafalgar Studios, until 5 September 2009

Set on the eve of Martin Luther King’s death, The Mountaintop is a surprising play.

The great civil rights activist sits alone in his hotel room while it is pouring with rain outside. The set is remarkably atmospheric and evocative; it is shabby and littered with cigarette ends and empty coffee cups, and Luther King (played by David Harewood) is visibly nervous, jumping in shock each time the thunder cracks: to him, it’s a gunshot, a materialisation of the death threats he is receiving.

The play takes a little while to warm up. Harewood’s voice is initially strange; it wavers with what sounds like heightened emotion even when asking for cigarettes. But he conveys King’s emotional state very well. He’s exhausted from preaching and shouting, frustrated by the lack of progress of the peaceful black rights movement; torn up with guilt about the violence that it has inspired, resulting in the death of a 16 year old killed by police.

But the real treat of The Mountaintop is Lorraine Burroughs as Camae. She gives a brilliant performance as the maid who brings him his roomservice coffee and who doesn’t leave. It’s a two-hander, so it’s just her and him for the whole play, and the interplay between the two characters is authentic and charged with chemistry.

Camae is beautiful and irresistible – “even my uncle couldn’t resist”. But she’s not just a pretty face: she is sharp, witty and has no sense that King is any better than she is, just because he is a Dr, or Martin Luther King or a man. She challenges. This is a voice for black rights but also women’s. She runs circles around him. When King is faltering about what to do next, after realising the marches aren’t powerful enough, Camae puts on his suit jacket and his shoes and delivers her own sermon, one that has King gripped.

The Mountaintop a lovely complex portrayal of a man desperate to do what’s right and have an impact on the world, and change it for the better, while struggling with the thing that he says unites us all and makes us human: fear. And smoking, drinking and ready to cheat on his beloved wife with the beautiful Camae.

But I have to say that the twist in the tale didn’t completely convince me. Camae is no maid: she is an angel, sent to tell King that his days are numbered. In fact, tonight is his last night before meeting his maker. Magical realism and all that, but it is a bit of a stretch to believe that she is an angel and he is on the phone to God.

The actors pull it off as their performances are so strong and the writing is agile. And the final scene where King is transported by Camae, like the Ghost of Christmas Future, into everything that happens since, is mesmerising. The whole set is engulfed in a light show that speeds past riots and murders and hip hop music. It’s overwhelming for us and for King. It ends in a note of hope with Obama’s voice and his famous slogan: “Yes we can”.