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Theater review: Crumbs from the Table of Joy

Tim Baker and Arise Rock in "Crumbs from the Table of Joy"
Jake Waggoner
Tim Baker and Arise Rock in "Crumbs from the Table of Joy"

Face Off Theatre recently opened its production of “Crumbs from the Table of Joy.” WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review. 

The coming-of-age story of a young African American teen during the nineteen fifties is the focus of two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage’s script.

The play’s central character is Ernestine Crump, who, along with her sister, Ermina, is thrown into city life in Brooklyn after being uprooted from a rural Florida community of relative innocence. Here Ernestine is confronted by a number of new influences that include religion, politics, race relations in a hostile neighborhood, and a disadvantaged economic status.

The result is a well-acted and moving comedy-drama that rewards theatregoers with surprising outcomes and numerous insights into Ernestine’s family dynamics.

Arise Rock as Ernestine Crump
Jake Waggoner
Arise Rock as Ernestine Crump

One reason for this show’s success is the spirited, energetic performance of Arise Rock, who grounds her Ernestine squarely in the opportunities she believes await her and in fierce resistance to the impediments that might stand in her way.

Ernestine’s story begins on a train ride north with her sister, and her recently widowed father. Despite her initial ominous utterance, “Death crippled my father,” Rock’s character rises to the challenges of her newly found environment with optimism and hope.

Throughout the show Rock’s bright and uplifting narratives punctuate scenes of family strife, and racial tensions. Rock’s revelatory performance is rife with observations on the choices of family members. More importantly, her takes on family missteps show us the maturation process of Ernestine’s inner emotional life.

Assisted by Milan Levy’s fluid lighting design, director Arizsia Staton makes full use of the Epic Center’s thrust setting. Staton stages scenes of Ernestine’s intimate asides through the walls of the crowded family apartment and appropriately places the site of the character’s narratives on the sidewalks of Brooklyn, as the world of this adolescent girl expands.

Early in Act I, Godfrey’s sister-in-law, Lily, thrusts her disruptive presence into a home already riddled with problematic adjustments. Alyssa Laney deliciously renders an unapologetic intruder who feels entitled and empowered to step into the role of cultural guide for the two daughters of her recently deceased sister. Despite the misgivings of Godfrey, this insistent in-law moves into the family’s apartment.

Laney’s appropriately aggressive character challenges Godfrey’s authority with a forward leaning posture. Her in-your-face, too-close-for comfort come-ons upend the house rules.

These rules include no drinking, no smoking, and obedience to the strictures of sexual purity from Sweet Father Devine. Equally disruptive for the homelife are Lily’s left-wing leanings and her growing political influence on Ernestine.

Tim Baker is believable as Godfrey Crump, Ernestine’s grief-stricken father, who seeks guidance for himself and his daughters through correspondence with Sweet Father Devine. When the empty words and promises of this religious shyster fail him, he quickly fills the hole in his life with Gerte, a heavily accented German immigrant he meets in the subway.

Ivy Zaroff, as Gerte, holds our attention as she carefully scales the obstacles in her character’s path. Zaroff shows comic flair with clumsy attempts to command the nuances of the English language. She displays credible frustration when prejudice against inter-racial marriage and the resistance of her stepdaughters challenge her place in the Crump household.

Aija [EYE-yah] Hodges, as Ermina Crump, Ernestine’s younger sister, is convincing as a naysayer in the family’s decision to accept Gerte. She also serves as a confidant for Ernestine in this supporting role, as well as a means for comparison and contrast to her sister’s struggles as a teenager.

The use of music plays a strong role in Lilly’s seduction of young minds, as she leads family lessons in the mambo and tunes Godfrey’s radio to cool jazz and bebop. Recorded music from Miles Davis and Charlie Parker helps set the vibe of the fifties, and bridges scene changes with evocative moods. Music also reinforces character, as in Zaroff’s delightful spotlight vocal of Gerte’s “Falling In love Again.”

Strong duo scenes include those between Lilly and Ernestine involving liquor and Latin Jazz. Another memorable two-person encounter includes the measured kitchen table standoff between Gerte and Lily as they stake their claims on Godfrey.

The pantomimic business involving Lily’s late-night finishing of Ernestine’s graduation dress, heretofore draped on a dress form throughout much of Act II, helps to tell Ernestine’s story. Lily’s work here is emblematic of her attempt to complete Ernestine, whom playwright Nottage seems to suggest is still a work in progress.

Ernestine completes herself, however, as Lily’s plans for her fall away. Ernestine’s beautiful final narrative passage, shared directly with the audience, envisions her future with a personal “years from now” forecast. She foresees a journey marked by escape, success, joy, loss, and pain. A journey influenced by all of the forces and people she encountered in her teens. But this imagined journey will be uniquely hers. It will be a journey that only she controls.

A retired station manager of WMUK, Gordon Bolar is now the station's theater reviewer.