“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop… and I’ve seen the promised land… I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It’s April 3, 1968, the night before Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Set at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, the play addresses the complex and common question of “what if?” A speculative, fictional drama, Katori Hall imaginatively explores what King experienced the night before he died.
While set in a single hotel room, the play takes audiences on a journey and delves deep into the mind of King. It examines both King’s dreams and nightmares, failures and achievements, strengths and weaknesses.
Bringing much more than a late night coffee and cigarette, a hotel maid visits King in his room. The beautiful woman, Camae, brings out an irreverent side of King, allowing audiences to view the leader of the civil rights movement as more than just a hero, but as a fallible human.
Discussing the slow-moving civil rights movement, King and Camae share their opinions with one another. Soon, Camae reveals she is not what she seems, as she warns King of his imminent death. Therefore, the leader must confront his mortality and confronts various stages of grief, ultimately giving an incredible view of history.
