The Mountaintop Makes LA Premiere at the Matrix Theatre Company

The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, starts its run tonight at The Matrix Theatre Company.

A creative reimagining of the night before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the show zooms in on an exhausted King. It's April 3, 1968, and he is returning to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis after delivering his magnificent "I've Been to the Mountaintop." Armed with nothing but a cup of coffee presented by a mysterious hotel maid, King begins to contemplate his life, past, and legacy. With a storm raging outside, the turmoil of his last night alive comes to a head as he confronts the plight and future of the American people.

Obie Award winner Roger Guenveur Smith directs Hall's play, which features Larry Bates and Danielle Moné Truitt.

"It was really important for me to show the human side of King," said Hall in an interview. "During this time, he was dealing with the heightened threat of violence, he was tackling issues beyond civil rights – economic issues – and was denouncing the Vietnam War. So I wanted to explore the emotional toll and the stress of that. King changed the world, but he was not a deity. He was a man, a human being like me and you. So it was important to show him as such: vulnerable."

The creative team includes John Iacovelli (set design), José López (lighting design), Marc Anthony Thompson (sound and projection design), and Jennifer Polumbo (stage manager).

Performances will run through April 10.

For tickets and more information, click here.