It is 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, playwright 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 his dreams and nightmares, failures and achievements, strengths, and weaknesses. A hotel maid, Camae, visits King in his room, bringing more than a late-night coffee and cigarette. She, a beautiful woman, brings out a seemingly 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-paced 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.

Director

Buddhika Damayantha is one of the few stage directors in Sri Lanka fully engaged as a professional theatre artiste. He has directed 23 Sinhala plays out of which 21 are adaptations of world-renowned classics, such as the works of Beckett, Albee, Williams, Schisgal, Fugard, Pinter, Arbuzov, Tendulkar, Ibsen, Simon Rivera, and Shakespeare. Buddhika Damayantha’s plays have won many significant awards at the State Drama Festivals held in Sri Lanka annually.

Buddhika Damayantha regularly conducts theatre workshops and other cultural activities to spearhead theatre education among youth in Sri Lanka. His works are well received by audience and theatre critics of Sri Lanka and his contributions are considered valuable in transforming the country’s theatre scenario and thought amidst the contemporary audience.

Director’s Note

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Last Night is based on the play The “Mountaintop” by American playwright Katori Hall and is considered as a true story. The night before Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed (April 3, 1968), who was the mysterious, beautiful young hotel maid who suddenly broke into his motel room number 306 in Memphis? Was she a secret agent? Just an ordinary maid? A demon from hell? Or, an angel who came to take him to God the next day? The play is an effort to bring to life the final moments of Dr. King’s, which have been a subject of controversy for many still. The task was made easier for me by adapting it in Sinhalese by Mr. Chulananda Samaranayake, an eminent writer of Sri Lanka. In his Sinhala adaptation, this great work was named “Mata Sihinayak Etha” (I Have a Dream).

Writer

Katori Hall is an American playwright and screenwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Hall’s best-known works include the hit television series P-Valley, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and plays such as Hurt Village, Our Lady of Kibeho, Children of Killers, The Mountaintop, and The Hot Wing King, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Translator

Chulananda Samaranayake is a prominent Sinhala writer. He translated and adapted many of the world’s renowned plays for the Sinhala stage.

Group

Red Wings Theatre Group is active in the theatre field of Sri Lanka since last two decade. The group conducts theatre workshops, training sessions, and other events and programs for beginners. During the period of conflict within the country the group made a tremendous effort to preserve Sinhala stage and attract audience again with its stage adaptations of world classic plays.