Crumbs from the Table of Joy

About the show

The play takes place in Brooklyn in 1950. An African-American man, Godfrey Crump, grieving over his wife's death, finds new meaning in religion. He moves his family, Ernestine, a 17-year-old and Ermina, 15 years old, from Florida to Brooklyn. Their Aunt Lily espouses Communist sentiments and Godfrey's new wife is not only a white woman, but German. Nottage has said of the play (in the booklet that accompanied the Center Stage production, page 4): "The 1950s was such a moment in American history in which I felt so much change...everything I had seen was in black and white. And I wanted to make it colorful. So I started writing Crumbs from the Table of Joy to try to understand that era."