Classic play for Black History Month

The Mountaintop at venues throughout Wales

THE Mountaintop will be touring Wales following rave reviews when it was presented at The Other Room in Cardiff.

Theatre company Fio will be launching the tour at the Senedd in Cardiff on October 2, in an event which will also celebrate the beginning of Black History Month. The Mountaintop is the fictional depiction of Martin Luther King’s last night on earth. In his motel room in Memphis, King is visited by Camae, a maid on a much greater mission than delivering his coffee.

With vivid theatrical imagination and powerful emotion, playwright Katori Hall fictionalises the final hours of Dr King’s life in this drama about leadership, legacy and mortality. The play explores themes of poverty, racism and the way to deal with impending death. Katori examines the world then and the world now, asking the audience: How much has really changed?

Mensah Bediako will re-join the company to play the part of King, while Rebecca Carrie joins the company as Camae, the maid. The show is directed by Fio artistic director Abdul Shayek, with design by Stacey-Jo Atkinson, sound design by Dan Lawrence, lighting design by Ciarán Cunningham and video design by Joe Fletcher.

Shayek said: “The Mountaintop spoke to me in a way no other play had for some time now. It provoked a number of emotions within me, from amusement to anger and frustration. I’d like to achieve that with our audiences and start a wider conversation around race, prejudice and importantly the need for us to embrace each other’s differences. This will also be one of the very few times when we have an all black cast on a stage in Wales, something which is absolutely mind boggling, not because it is being done now, but because it is 2017 and the fact that this hasn’t happened more often makes me frustrated and sad.”

The Mountaintop will be at Powys Dance, Llandrindod Wells (Oct 3); Halliwell Theatre, Carmarthen (Oct 5); Span Arts, Narberth (Oct 7); Blackwood Miner’s Institute (Oct 10-13); Riverfront, Newport (Oct 18 & 19); Pontio, Bangor (Oct 24); Ffwrnes, Llanelli (Oct 26 & 27)