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L-R. William Thomas Hodgson and Sam Jackson are fabulous in Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u201cThe Mountaintop.\u201d Leslie Katz\/Bay City News<\/p>\nWhile the end of\u00a0Oakland Theater Project\u2019s production of \u201cThe Mountaintop\u201d\u2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall\u2019s imagining of the last night of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s life \u2014\u00a0is no surprise, the journey getting\u00a0there is intriguing, fascinating,\u00a0funny\u00a0and powerful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
William Thomas Hodgson\u00a0plays the\u00a0civil rights leader as the fully human\u00a0fellow, foibles and\u00a0all,\u00a0that\u00a0writer\u00a0Hall intended.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0matched by Sam Jackson as Camae, the\u00a0smart, sassy\u00a0maid\u00a0who delivers him a cup of coffee, and much more, in Room 306 of the\u00a0Lorraine Motel\u00a0in Memphis,\u00a0early in the morning on April 4, 1968.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Directed with compassion, humor and precision by James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran, the\u00a0actors are\u00a0on fire. Their banter, flirtation and discussion of the state of the\u00a0world are simply riveting throughout the 90-minute, no-intermission show.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
L-R. William Thomas Hodgson and Sam Jackson are fabulous in Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u201cThe Mountaintop.\u201d Leslie Katz\/Bay City News<\/p>\n
They start out smoking\u00a0together\u00a0and teasing each other. As their encounter progresses, the levity gives way to\u00a0passion,\u00a0conflict, anger\u00a0and fear and a truly spiritual reckoning.\u00a0And their pithy dialogue references concrete details, from MLK\u2019s relationships with his wife and daughter, to Malcolm X\u2019s philosophy an more. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a particularly engrossing sequence, housekeeper Camae sermonizes\u00a0at the request of MLK,\u00a0literally\u00a0wearing\u00a0his shoes, and she tears it up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the\u00a0centerpiece\u00a0of the set\u00a0is not a bed.\u00a0In program notes, OTP artistic director Moran says, \u201cThe play is set in the Lorraine Motel, but it is also set atop [MLK Jr.\u2019s] grave.\u00a0As a result, we have chosen to set the play within his tomb.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0This man of freedom cannot free himself from death when it comes knocking.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The production is bolstered\u00a0by vivid\u00a0sound and projection designs, from the opening strains of Sam Cook\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Been a Long Time\u201d and images of pivotal moments in the civil rights movement to the closing,\u00a0a lengthy montage\u00a0of photos\u00a0detailing\u00a0how such\u00a0strife\u00a0has continued vigorously through the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Given the\u00a0divided\u00a0state of the world in 2026, the show is remarkably relevant. As Moran also\u00a0states\u00a0in the program: \u201cDr. King reminds us of the great, strange and sweet paradox that we are most free when we enable someone\u00a0else to be their best self.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
OTP\u2019s sublime production of \u201cThe Mountaintop\u201d \u2014named after the \u201cI\u2019ve Been to the Mountaintop\u201d speech King delivered on the day before he died \u2014 offers an excellent example of that spirit.<\/p>\n
Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u201cThe Mountaintop\u201d continues through Feb. 15 at Flax, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$70 at oaklandtheaterproject.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Review:\u00a0Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u2018Mountaintop\u2019 a riveting\u00a0look at MLK Jr.\u2019s final night\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the end of\u00a0Oakland Theater Project\u2019s production of \u201cThe Mountaintop\u201d\u2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall\u2019s imagining of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-172654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}