Just over the Thames, the Young Vic is
currently reviving
The Mountaintop,
Katori Hall’s dramatic hagiography of Martin Luther King Jr. At the
Donmar, a rather different “watershed moment in 1960s black American
history” play has its British opening.
Kemp Powers’ drama (which premiered in Los Angeles in 2013) unfolds in
real time in a Miami hotel room in 1964. Its lead characters are
Cassius Clay, who that evening has beaten Sonny Liston for the world
heavyweight boxing championship; Jim Brown, beginning his transition
from footballing phenomenon to film actor; Sam Cooke, at the height of
his singing career as a gospel-to-soul pioneer; and Malcolm X, who has
been Clay’s mentor in introducing him to the Nation of Islam and his
subsequent identity as Muhammad Ali, but who is himself on the verge of
being jettisoned by the Nation.
We see 90 minutes that are part-victory party (the meeting is
imaginary, but the four were indeed friends in real life), part-banter,
part-series of debates and even argy-bargies on various aspects of
black issues. Powers may not go much beyond the standard historical
character portraits, but this is a play of words and ideas, and those
are powerfully articulated and counterposed without bias.
The obvious hook of the drama is Clay (Sope Dirisu), and Kwame
Kwei-Armah’s electric production begins with an animated re-enactment
of the Liston fight to draw us in before things get talky. However, the
meat of the matter consists of impassioned exchanges between Malcolm X
and Cooke about whether the latter should assimilate into mainstream
entertainment culture or speak out. Francois Battiste walks a fine line
between Malcolm’s slightly affected articulacy and his unquestionable
commitment to his ideals, while Arinzé Kene (no slouch as a playwright
himself) not only speaks but sings a sweetly authentic storm as Cooke,
culminating in “A Change Is Gonna Come”. (Powers rightly sees no need
to spell out that within a year of this evening each of the two would
be shot dead.)
Much of the remainder of the run is already booked solid; in terms of
its content, however, it is very definitely – to quote Keith LeBlanc’s
1983 hip-hop sample montage of Malcolm X – no sell out.
Written for the Financial
Times.