The Mountaintop At Curve Theatre Leicester Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by LW
Curve theatre is located in the centre of Leicester with plenty of options for parking, eating and drinking nearby. The theatre also has a bar, a café bar and serves a limited menu and light bites. The theatre has 2 stage areas and tonight’s venue was in the Studio Theatre, a much smaller more intermate venue than the main theatre where the larger more commercial productions take place. This suited the play we saw, allowing the audience to feel we were looking directly into the room where the action takes place.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr was perhaps the most important person in the civil rights movement. The story we see for this play is the night before his assassination. He has delivered his iconic ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech and we see him arrive back to his room at Lorraine’s Motel – the location for the entire play.
Ray Strasser-King in the lead role was I felt excellent at replicating many of the mannerisms of Martin Luther King. I enjoyed his performance, in particular after the twist of the play, when the character changed giving way for him to relax in his vocalisation of the character ensuring his diction was much clearer, which in the earlier parts of the play I felt was so conscious of getting the voice right, we lost some of the words meaning it was quite hard work to understand what was happening as I was still figuring out what had been said when I needed to start with the next line.
Justina Kehinde was great as the cheeky and charming Camae. The delivery of many of her quick witted one liners were great and created beautiful moments of comic relief in what could have been a rather dark and intense play without these lines. Which credit to Katori Hall the writer are excellently placed and not once broke the tension; rather presented us with a joyful piece of theatre.
Nathan Powell has directed the piece beautifully, remaining sympathetic to the story yet allowing the audience to enjoy the play without feeling too saddened by the content. With a play with only two actors on stage throughout the entirety and a single room to do this in, the action was continual and not once did it feel dull as plays with this setting sometimes can without a variety of locations.
The set was designed to be an exact copy of the room for the real-life event (Now a museum). However, I felt that there were little slips in this, for example the curtains and curtain pole were extremely modern (ring top rather than pinch pleat) and once I noticed that I was aware that other aspects also felt unauthentic (how holey can a pair of socks be?). However, having said that, there were many aspects of the set which were excellent – such as the opening of the stage when it snowed and the exact replication of the layout of the room.
As the action draws to a close Martin Luther King Jr is shown the future – as are we, these projections, along with a rousing speech from Camae about passing the baton on, noting key figures who have picked up the mantle and pushed forward to make a difference – following in his footsteps. Sadly, during this we are also reminded that here and now on our very own doorstep we are not holding Martin Luther King’s baton and looking after our brothers and sisters – images of refugees crammed into small boats the image for this.
I won’t share the story; I think it would be a shame for others not to enjoy it unfolding as I did. So, with that said I recommend you take 90 minutes out of an evening to see this important piece of theatre.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The play runs until Saturday 5th October with tickets from £10. Tickets are available from www.curveonline.co.uk.