‘Slow Down the Night’ Shows King’s Heroism, Humanity

Mythologizing popular public figures by placing them on pedestals isn’t all that difficult--the hard part is dramatizing their heroism without sacrificing their human stature.

A powerhouse performance by Ben Harney as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. fulfills both missions in “Slow Down the Night” at the West Angeles Christian Arts Center. Visionary, humanist and one very tired and sleepless leader, Harney’s King bears the burdens of greatness with sympathetic dignity.

Anthony LaPeau’s play is a fictional account of the evening preceding the famous “I Have a Dream” speech in which King articulated the moral context that made civil rights legislation a historic inevitability in America. The origins of that speech are hypothesized through a meeting of King and five other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C., for the historic march on Aug. 28, 1963. The members--including Ralph Abernathy (Pierre De Laney), and Andrew Young (Kelvin Garvanne)--would all go on to become prominent leaders in their own right, but here the focus is on King.

Turning preparations for the approaching speech into a parable of personal integrity, LaPeau initially shows King struggling to reach a consensus among his widely divergent and strong-willed allies. At news of an attempted firebombing of King’s home, a fiery John Lewis (Rugg Williams) advocates violence; their subsequent deliberations illustrate not only the magnitude of the stakes but the pressures of being held to a higher standard of conduct than their opponents.

Personified in a pair of sadistic, larcenous FBI thugs (Peter Goldsmith, Anthony Crane) and their menacing director, J. Edgar Hoover (Thom Rachford), that opposition plays like over-the-top caricature next to the richly nuanced protagonists.

When the harassed King is forced to re-create his stolen speech, he reverts to an impassioned, spiritual plea in place of timid collective strategy--ironically at the instigation of an inept security guard (Jeris Lee Poindexter), who reminds King that his true calling is to be a preacher, not a politician.

Brisk pacing and sharp focus by director Damon Lamont Eskridge keep this “Night” anything but slow, though it’s important not to mistake its moral truths for historical fact.

* “Slow Down the Night,” West Angeles Christian Arts Center, 3020 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Mar. 17. $10-12.50. (213) 733-8707. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.