25 February 1964: 22-year-old Cassius Clay, soon to be Muhammad Ali, has
just won the world heavyweight boxing title. Instead of hitting the
town, he chooses to celebrate in a Miami hotel room with three close
friends - activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football
star Jim Brown.
This fictional account of a real night imagines what might have happened
in that tiny hotel room. As the Civil Rights movement stirs outside, and
the melody of 'A Change is Gonna Come' hangs in the air, four men will
emerge from that one night ready to define a new world.
Kemp Powers' award-winning debut play One Night in Miami... deftly
combines the personal and the political at a pivotal moment in history;
it received the Ted Schmitt Award 2013 for its world premiere, and went
on to be adapted into a critically acclaimed film directed by Regina
King in 2020. It is published here in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics
series with a brand new introduction.