The Mountaintop

Content Warning: The Mountaintop and this guide discuss racism (including police brutality and murder).

Note: The Mountaintop is performed in one act with no scene breaks or intermissions. For the sake of this guide, it has been divided into two parts.

On a rainy night on April 3, 1968, an exhausted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. enters the familiar Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, which he has reserved many times. Through the door, King shouts to Ralph Abernathy, his friend and fellow leader in the Civil Rights Movement, to bring him some Pall Mall cigarettes; he occasionally coughs. After locking the door, closing the curtains, and turning on a lamp to reveal the shabby room, he starts to undress. Muttering about the sermon he’s writing, “Why America is going to hell” (5), King goes to the bathroom to relieve himself. Recognizing he’ll be attacked for his sermon, he considers, “America, you are too ARROGANT!” (5). Realizing his coffee cup is empty, he picks up a phone, checks the receiver and nightstand for listening devices, and calls the front desk to order more coffee. King is informed that they no longer offer room service, but upon learning who is calling, they agree to send coffee to what they’ve come to call the King-Abernathy Suite.