It seems that no one can agree on who \u201cthe real MLK\u201d was.<\/p>\n
In the 58 years since his assassination, the late Dr. King has been wanted by the FBI and lauded on FBI social media accounts every January. He\u2019s a hero to many, a weak-willed pacifist to some and a radical instigator to others. His name is frequently evoked by conservative pundits, despite King calling rioting \u201cthe language of the unheard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly six decades after his passing, a consensus about one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement remains elusive.<\/p>\n
Playwright Katori Hall didn\u2019t make the debate any easier with her 2009 magical-realist work, \u201cThe Mountaintop,\u201d currently being produced through this weekend by Oakland Theater Project. Hall\u2019s controversial script tries to strip away the idealized MLK in favor of a flawed chain-smoker with the world\u2019s largest chip on his shoulder. He appears sincere in his convictions, but is shameless in his vices. He\u2019s a smart man with wandering eye, but only shows the former.<\/p>\n
We find this King (played by William Thomas Hodgson, company co-artistic director) in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel on April 3, 1968. He doesn\u2019t know everything will change tomorrow, he\u2019s just
trying to finish his speech to the striking sanitation workers. Tired from travel, he\u2019s eager for coffee; room service sends it to him via waitress Camae (Sam Jackson). He catches her attention because he\u2019s famous; she catches his for other reasons.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, the good reverend is willing to pause his work to talk with the pretty woman who walked through the rain. She\u2019s surprised to see the man behind the headlines. Then again, she isn\u2019t what she seems either.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no wonder Hall\u2019s play is so controversial, given the liberal artistic license it takes with King\u2019s
personality. A dramatist often has to fill in the blanks of a subject\u2019s private life, but Hall\u2019s King is
even more unorthodox than the n-word-dropper from the \u201cBoondocks\u201d episode \u201cReturn of the
King.\u201d This version angrily resents Malcolm X and the Black Panthers for, in his eyes, playing
into White America\u2019s fears of \u201cangry negroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
This historically dubious King seems designed to have a foil in Camae, an unabashedly radical Black woman who believes the time for talk has passed. She\u2019s a retroactive Black feminist voice in an era that rarely had let those voices be promoted.<\/p>\n
Historians may still raise their eyebrows at Hall, but the continued allure of the play is
that it understands how dry history rarely makes for compelling drama. Why else would the play
take such a surreal turn in its second-half?<\/p>\n
Said turn is foreshadowed in Sam Fehr\u2019s remarkably-designed Room 306. It resembles a marbled
gravesite, with King\u2019s tombstone standing prominently upstage as a foreboding totem. The grave
itself is a bed of white silk and feathers; a comfortable tomb, if nothing else. The few hotel-
specific accoutrement present \u2014 hat rack, telephone, chairs \u2014 feel like transitional items to ease
one through their departure. That\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
As skillfully directed by James Mercer II and Michael Socrates Moran, Hodgson and Jackson
make fine tennis opponents. Jackson has always been a wonderfully \u201cpresent\u201d performer,
projecting keen awareness of everyone in the room and the situation they\u2019re in. In hindsight, that gives Camae an early advantage over King, but Jackson doesn\u2019t show her cards too early.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it\u2019s organic when Camae, like Fehr\u2019s set, shows a frightening familiarity about the situation she and King\u2019s occupy. The diminutive Hodgson seems an unconventional choice for the iconic MLK, but the gifted actor has the voice and grace of a convincing orator. What\u2019s more, his behind-the-scenes portrayal of King lets one believe that a ladies\u2019 man and devout reverend could be one in the-same.<\/p>\n
OTP shows frequently lean on a dreamlike quality, which can be just as much of a boon as a
burden. Doing so early here doesn\u2019t subvert the controversy of Hall\u2019s script, but finds its heart.
The play is freed from the confines of time and space, spinning a yarn that\u2019s equally esoteric and
grounded. After all, the show is performed in the former garage of an art supply store (on Martin
Luther King Way, no less).<\/p>\n
For 90 engrossing minutes, we get to forget our own surroundings and dream of one of the most important nights in American history.<\/p>\n
Charles Lewis III claims to be an award-nominated journalist, culture critic, and performing artist born and raised in San Francisco. He alleges to have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, the San Francisco Examiner, and many more. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man\u2019s Idiot.<\/p>\n
\u2018THE MOUNTAINTOP\u2019<\/p>\n
By Katori Hall, presented by Oakland Theater Project<\/p>\n
Through: Feb. 15<\/p>\n
Where: FLAX art and design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr Way,\u00a0Oakland<\/p>\n
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, no intermission<\/p>\n
Tickets: $10-$70; oaklandtheaterproject.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seems that no one can agree on who \u201cthe real MLK\u201d was. In the 58 years since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[967,181,971,143,145,144,1058,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-178282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-oakland","12":"tag-oakland-headlines","13":"tag-oakland-news","14":"tag-theater","15":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178282","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=178282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}