Roy Alexander Weise, winner of the 2016 JMK prize, chose Nina as a collaborator on his recent production of The Mountaintop at The Young Vic Theatre, London, that opened on 12th October.
The play by Katori Hall is a fictional account of Martin Luther King Jnr’s last night on earth. It takes a personal approach but delivers a message that resounds as strongly today as it did in 1968.
Working with Lizzie Powell (lighting Designer) and Rajha Shakiry (Set and Costumes). Nina was responsible for bringing a sense of magic and of the surreal to the second half of the play, culminating in a dramatic flash forward vision sequence accompanied by George Dennis’ sound design and composition.
The result is an emotional rollercoaster that both warms and chills. It has been extremely well received with audiences standing at the curtain call every night.
Trying to think of the last time 10 minutes of theatre felt so powerful & empowering as the last 10 of The Mountaintop. The baton passes on.
Matt Truemann – Critic, What’s On Stage
The blistering final moment where King is shown the ‘Promised Land,’ where we travel from 1968 to the present day, showing every event that has caused a discussion on racial discrimination, is the best thing I have seen onstage all year. I cannot begin to put into words how well it works, but the emotional release it generates in the audience is palatable. For the first time reviewing this year I threw myself into a standing ovation, tears streaming down my face, cathartic but euphoric, and with a renewed sense of my own morals.
The Mountaintop takes a surprising spiritual turn towards its conclusion, when Rajha Shakiry’s sublimely humdrum hotel room set reveals the tricks up its sleeve, setting the stage for an immensely powerful finale: a tear-jerking race through African American history from 1968 to the present day, from James Brown and Bob Marley to Obama and Black Lives Matter. Rarely does theatre achieve such invigorating poignancy.
The Mountaintop was a produced by The Young Vic Theatre in association with Desara Bosnja. Movement Direction: Jenni Jackson