ne\TsTage - Center Stage

This is the story of Ernestine Crump. At17, her world has been radically—andurgently—transformed: her mother hasdied; her father, Godfrey, has found solace ina religious leader; and the family has uprootedfrom Florida to a cramped basement apartmentin Brooklyn, where the arrival of a Black familyis hardly cause for celebration. Her youngersister, Ermina, is meddlesome and sassy, andher flirtatious and somewhat dipsomaniacalAunt Lily enjoys antagonizing Godfrey andproclaims her Communism. And Ernestine’snew stepmother: the caring, desperate-forapprovalGerte? She’s white. And German.Each Crump deals with loss and change in adifferent way. Ermina discovers boys. Lilymoves into the apartment with an intoxicatingwhirlwind of booze and cigarettes, streetwisdom, and indignation. Godfrey joins thechurch of Father Divine, to whom he sends hismost important questions concerning salvationand faith. He also meets German immigrantGerte on the train one day and decides almostimmediately to marry her, much to the chagrinof the other Crumps. But amidst all the chaosaround her—both inside her house and out—Ernestine knows that “something better is alwayson the horizon.” In her case, the horizon holdsher upcoming graduation from high school andthe allure and escapism of Hollywood pictures,Joan Crawford and John Garfield in Humoresque (1946)S e t ting the S t ag eBy Steve Lichtensteinparticularly the statuesque screen divas whoseglamorous dress and elegant names so beguileher.Ernestine also finds time to narrate her family’sstory. As she stands on the cusp of adulthood,Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joydepicts a nation caught between the need forself-improvement and the comfort of stagnation.Set in 1950, Nottage’s play shows the Crumpsin a US stuck in a grey area of uncertainracial tension—before either Brown v. Boardof Education or a formidable Civil Rightsmovement—where old racist notions gave wayto either uneasy guilt or wanton aggression.In addition, the insular paranoia of thepre-McCarthy era—of Communists in our midstand the enemy next door—resulted in a timewhen everyone was suspect. Crumbs from theTable of Joy wryly portrays a family forced toconfront the expectations and prejudices of theworld around them, come to terms with their ownbiases and insecurities, and deal with how theirrelationships are affected by a shifting nationalconscience. Can Ernestine and Ermina deal withthe social stigma of a white, foreign stepmother?Can faith and religion satisfy the pangs of lossand racism? Can the Crumps survive in a whiteworld? Will Ernestine discover her place in theworld?NEXTSTAGE | Crumbs from the Table of Joy