A few weeks back, on the same day V.A. hospital nurse Alex Pretti was killed by ICE agents on a busy street in Minneapolis as he attempted to assist a woman those same ICE agents had pushed down to the ground, Artistry gave us a welcome respite from anger and grief with a giddy, polished production of the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate.

Now, after weeks of continued turmoil in our region brought on by ICE and, at this moment, the hope of relief with a promised end of the so-called ICE Surge, Artistry's production of Katori Hall's play The Mountaintop offers a powerful message as to why the resistance to oppression in the form of the ICE Surge, or by other means, must never cease and must be taken up, not merely by a few charismatic leaders, but by anyone who feels the injustice of that oppression.

The Mountaintop is being staged through March 1 in Artistry's Black Box theater, happily returned to service this season after being dark since the days of COVID. Warren C. Bowles directs the play with clear attention to the sturdiness of playwrighting that mixes drama, history, and humor with the enduring significance of the lessons embedded within it. Bowles, along with the play's two actors, Tyler Susan Jennings as a motel maid named Camae and Mikell Sapp as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., are all making their Artistry debuts. The stellar results indicate that the theatre suits them well.

The play starts on April 3, 1968. The single set of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee–we see the motel's iconic sign through the room's window. This room will be occupied by Dr. King. He has returned to Memphis to help organize the city's sanitation workers who are well into the second month of a strike for a living wage and safe work conditions. At an event earlier in the day Dr. King was not feeling well and had not planned to speak, only to be present to show his support, but his colleague and close friend, Ralph Abernathy, persuaded him to say a few words. The result was an impromptu address that became known as his "Mountaintop" speech, heralded as among the greatest of Dr. King's speeches, and which lends its title to Hall's play.

The play opens, as the walk-in music winds down with an R&B arrangement of the gospel song "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," with King entering his room exhausted, sending his friend Ralph off to bring back a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes, his brand of choice. He kicks off his shoes and sniffs them, recoiling at the bad odor. Alright, we are given the inside truth that the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is just a man with stinky feet, after all.

He calls room service for a cup of coffee that is promptly delivered by an attractive maid named Camae, wearing a mid-century perfect turquoise uniform and white apron (Samantha Fromm Haddow designed the apt costumes). Though it is her first day on the job, Camae seems pretty confident about her role, enough to be sassy toward Dr. King. For example, when he asks how much he owes for the coffee, she tells him the front desk said, "it was on the house for you." King's response shows that he is accustomed to being indulged in that way, but Camae quickly adds, "Of course, that doesn't mean you can't leave me a tip for bringing it to you."

King asks if she has cigarette, and she does–a Pall Mall! What are the odds? As she prepares to leave, he invites her to sit awhile and smoke a cigarette with him. She demurs, but he is persuasive. Despite being a great man who changed history for the better, Dr. King's infidelities are now well known, so we can easily anticipate where this is encounter will go. However, Camae is not your average hotel maid (if, as she would assert, there is such a woman) and their encounter takes unexpected twists as the evening turns into the next day. In the end, Camae is not able to change the reality that the evening of April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray would crouch at a window in a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine and, when Dr. King stepped out on the balcony, kill him with a single rifle shot.

Before that happens, we see, along with Dr. King, his final request–a vision of all those who would pick up the baton he is forced to drop when his life work is cut short. That sequence, presented with visual eloquence (the projections, along with evocative lighting, were designed by Jim Eischen), has been updated to conclude with the most recent of those who stood for justice. This ensures that Hall's play, first produced in 2009, has the capacity to reach us in the space and time we inhabit today.

Both actors give sublime performances, with Mikell Sapp speaking in King's everyday voice, but, when it seems suitable, switching to a great orator's voice–deeper, measured, rolling his words into poetry, and giving each of them a stamp of significance. We see him as a flirt, as a devoted father on the phone with his daughter, as an exhausted workaholic whose tasks are never done, and as a man experiencing terror and dread as he takes stock of the fate that awaits him. Sapp delivers it all, never dropping a point.

Tyler Susan Jennings is equally winning, conveying the many dimensions of Camae's persona: a new employee fearful of getting in trouble, a seductress, a radical race theorist, a tender healer, and more. Jennings' local work has primarily been with Children's Theatre Company. I hope to see her in many plays in many theaters in seasons to come. Jennings and Sapp also benefit from the adept work of intimacy and fight coordinator Elena Glass.

The Lorraine Hotel, located on the south edge of downtown Memphis, offered upscale lodging for African Americans in the era of legally segregated accommodations. When the 1964 Civil Rights Act made such segregation illegal, its owners upgraded the property to compete with downtown hotels now available to Black guests. One upgrade was the addition of a second floor and motel-style drive-up access to rooms on the building's south side, thus creating the set-up that would make King vulnerable to his assassin's bullet just a couple of years later. They also changed its name from "Hotel" to "Motel." The site has been transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum, preserving the Lorraine's signage, exterior, and the interior of Room 306 on that night, down to King's cigarette butts in the ashtray. I have visited the museum and been in Room 306, and I can attest that scenic designer Michaela Lochen recreated the setting with impressive fidelity–butts and all, with a nod to props designer Katie Philips.

A final note of recognition goes to sound designer C. Andrew Mayer for excellent work throughout, and in particular for the terrifying thunderclaps that punctuate Dr. King's last night on Earth.

A section of the Jewish Mishnah titled "Perkei Avot" ("Wisdom of the Fathers") includes this dictum that can be applied to any endeavor to improve the world: "It is not incumbent on you to complete the work, but that does not make you free to abandon it." That is the discovery made by Reverend King as he prepares to leave this life, and it is his benediction to all who would follow his path clearly laid out in this powerful, timely production of The Mountaintop.

The Mountaintop runs through March 1, 2026, at Artistry, Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 West Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington MN. For tickets and information, please call 952-563-8375 or go to artistrymn.org.

Playwright: Katori Hall; Director: Warren C. Bowles; Scenic Designer: Michaela Lochen; Costume Designer: Samantha Fromm Haddow; Lighting & Projection Designer: Jim Eischen; Sound Designer: C. Andrew Mayer; Props Design: Katie Phillips; Intimacy/Fight Coordinator: Elena Glass; Technical Director: Will Rafferty; Stage Manager: Ashley Raper; Assistant Stage Manager: Charlene Holm.

Cast: Tyler Susan Jennings (Camae), Mikell Sapp (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).