“The Mountaintop” at Trinity Rep

By Richard Pacheco

            The Katori Hall play about the last evening of Martin Luther King’s life at Trinity arrives right on time to honor the man who changed the face of America. It has him holed up in a hotel room with an irreverent angel masquerading as a maid. The resulting meeting is both funny and at times touching. It gets off to a slow start but gains momentum and power.

            The first act is mostly King bantering with the angel, as they smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol as they chat and flirt with each other. At first she is merely the maid who brings him some alcohol and cigarettes but it evolves into her revealing her true name and position, not Camae the maid but the angel of death. She is there to prepare him for what is to come tomorrow, his death.

            The play veers from robust comedy to emotionally moving segments which reveal character and ad depth. It shifts from the naturalistic beginning with the emphasis of Camae as a maid into the more imaginative aspects of the spiritual. Leaving behind the mundane world of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King spent his last night live.

        

    Joe Wilson is Martin Luther King is a vivid, riveting performance that remains with you. He is vulnerable and powerful, by twists and turns between a man with a dream and a man with all too visible flaws like his weakness for women. He has many fine moments in this play and takes advantage of them all. At one point when he discovers that Camae is an angel is powerful as he tries to grasp what it means and why she is there with him. He manages to get her to let him talk to God on the phone, after Camae calls God’s cell phone, which leaves him perplexed, not knowing what it is. King discovers that God is a black woman, it totally surprises and confuses him and it is hilarious and touching at the same time.

            Mia Ellis is Camae a woman who is sultry and seductive as well as smart and savvy. She is part enigma, part temptation. When she reveals parts of her life before becoming the angel of death is at times comic at other times moving. Ellis is poised with sexual energy and sass, wild and ready to roar. She has an air to her that is delightful, a mixture of sober reality and inviting dreaminess.

            The chemistry between the two of them is winning, hot and serious simultaneously.

            Kent Gash directs with a sure touch that is vibrant and invigorating. He brings them together with dexterity and conviction and it shows throughout.

            This is a dynamic production filled with treasures, gems of performances that reverberate challenge and excite. While there are flaws in the play, there are also many good things and it is the breathtaking performances that make it all worth it. Hall manages to find a man with flaws and doubts getting ready to face his earthly end with humor and courage.

"The Mountaintop" Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St., Providence. Through Feb. 12, Tickets: $25 to $71, Info: (401) 351-4242, trinityrep.com