When I was young, I had the idea that Martin Luther King Jr., who earned his PhD in theology, was actually a medical doctor. With a word or a laying on of hands, I imagined, he could mend wounds, cure diseases.
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In The Mountaintop, her punchy, irreverent 2011 play, meticulously staged by Court Theatre, Katori Hall sweeps aside the gauzy mythos. We meet the MLK with a smoking habit and smelly feet, worrying that his mustache makes him look old. The Lorraine Motel, on the eve of his assassination, is King’s version of Gethsemane. Just back from delivering the magnificent address that would be his last, he dispatches disciples to pick up a pack of cigarettes and sits, tremendously alone, on the shabby pink bedspread of room 306.
For one thing, it makes the protagonist sympathetic, and raises the narrative stakes immensely.
Coca-Cola—which splashed King’s image across its 1988 “Share the Dream Scholarship Sweepstakes” ad campaign, and touts this play on its website (and which gave Hall a scholarship in 1999). Times do change, but the soda giant settled a massive discrimination lawsuit in 2000, and currently faces another. Hall’s play does not mention the boycott.
For his own final sermon, Jesus talked about hypocrisy. It’s easy to build grand tombs for prophets, he pointed out. And it’s easy to say you’d treat the slain prophet better than your ancestors did.
Through 10/13: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM Court Theatre 773-753-4472courttheatre.org $45-$65
