Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-Winning

 The Mountaintop

 Opens Palm Beach Dramaworks’  

 2025/26 Season on October 24

West Palm Beach, Fla. (Tuesday, October 14, 2025) - In 2008, Katori Hall was interviewed by the Playwrights Foundation about The Mountaintop, which takes place at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on the night before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Earlier in the evening, he had delivered his memorable “Mountaintop” speech at Mason Temple (a Black church), in which he mused that his life might be cut short. 

Hall discussed how her mother, Carrie Mae, who grew up a block away from the Lorraine Motel, desperately wanted to hear MLK speak in person on the evening of April 3, 1968. Carrie Mae was 15 years old at the time, and her mother urged her not to go, terrified that the church would be bombed. “It would be the greatest regret of my mother’s life,” said Hall. “The ominous presence of death was hard to ignore. Palpable, it was. Everyone knew it was coming. They just didn’t know when. . . . My mother’s regret along with the reasoning as to why she did not go that night has always stuck with me. A native Memphian, I grew up with this history only a stone’s throw away. It is my bloody heritage.” It’s also the genesis of her play.

The Mountaintop unfolds in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel just after MLK returns from Mason Temple. He encounters Camae, a beautiful, mysterious maid, who shares some upsetting news that compels him to confront his life and legacy – “warts and all,” as Hall has said. Camae is named after Katori’s mother, Carrie Mae.  "I wanted to put [MLK and her mother] in the same room and give my mother that opportunity that she didn't have in 1968," Hall told NPR in 2011.

This spellbinding, inspired fantasia on the great civil rights leader’s last night on earth, which won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on October 24 (7:30 pm) and continues through November 9, with specially priced previews on October 22 and 23 (7:30 pm). Belinda (Be) Boyd directs. 

Diane Perlberg is the 2025-26 Season Sponsor. Penny Bank is the executive producer of The Mountaintop.

PBD’s production features Christopher Marquis Lindsay (PBD debut) as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rita Cole as Camae. Scenic design is by Nikolas Serrano (PBD debut), sponsored by Susan Schwartz; costume design is by Brian O’Keefe, sponsored by Toni and Martin Sosnoff; lighting design is by Kirk Bookman, sound design is by Roger Arnold, projection design is by Adam J. Thompson, and casting is by McCorkle Casting Ltd.

Katori Hall’s plays include The Hot Wing King (2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama); The Mountaintop (Olivier Award for Best New Play), Hurt Village, Hoodoo Love, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!, Our Lady of Kibeho, Purple is the Colour of Mourning, and The Blood Quilt. She also wrote the book for and co-produced Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, for which she received two Tony nominations. TV: Showrunner and executive producer of P-Valley, the much admired television series she adapted from her play Pussy Valley. The series has been nominated for multiple awards and has won four NAACP Image Awards. A short list of Hall’s other honors includes the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, the NYFA Fellowship, the Columbia University John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement, the National Black Theatre's August Wilson Playwriting Award, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award.  

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional, nonprofit theatre company founded in 2000 and located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. Each season, the award-winning company produces five shows and offers a wide variety of programs for students at the theatre and in schools. Committed to fostering the future of theatre, PBD has become a hub for playwrights in Florida and around the country to nurture their work through the Perlberg Festival of New Plays. PBD is a member of Theatre Communications Group, Florida Professional Theatres Association, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. In 2024, PBD was honored as Non-Profit of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches.

Tickets for all performances are $95, except for opening night of each production ($115) and previews ($75). Student tickets are available for $15 with a valid K-12 or university/college ID, and anyone under 40 pays $40 (no additional fees) with a photo ID. Tickets for educators and active military are half price with proper ID (other restrictions apply). Group rates are also available. Tickets can be purchased through the box office, in person or by phone (561.514.4042 ext 2), and online 24 hours a day at palmbeachdramaworks.org.     

All performances, prices, and dates are subject to change.



The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

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