Plenty of fledgling playwrights test their wings with an autobiographical memory play. Lynne Nottage’s delightful freshman effort (1995), about a Southern widower and his two teenage girls adjusting to life as Brooklyn transplants in 1950, might read like one, but it actually represents a huge leap from her own upbringing among Boerum Hill intelligentsia. At age 31 (six years after she emerged from the playwriting program at Yale Drama), Nottage’s ear was sharp, her empathy deep, her sense of humor already well honed.
There’s a tragicomic loopiness to this family drama, which makes it all the more appealing. We meet 17-year-old Ernestine Crump (Shanel Bailey) reminiscing and soliloquizing in her family’s basement apartment (great spare set by Brendan Gonzales Boston). Her name is apt: In recapping the family’s transition from the South, Ernestine comes across as thoughtful and probing, especially compared to her 15-year-old sister, Ermina (impish Malika Samuel), who has just discovered the lure of romance – boys, to be less flowery.
Crushed by this wife’s death, the girls’ father, Godfrey (Jason Bowen), has latched onto a charismatic radio evangelist, Father Divine, whose portrait looms over the living room like that of a certain “traveling salesman” from an iconic 1944 play.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
“Sweet Father” rules this household from afar (Godfrey relocated to Brooklyn, based solely on the return address on the promotional material for the “International Peace Movement Mission”). Godfrey, who gladly assumes the last name that Father assigns him (“Goodness” is surely a step up from “Crump”), hangs on his idol’s every word. When not quite clear as to the import of the preacher’s prefab, all-purpose counsel, Godfrey scribbles notes and sends letters pleading for clarification.
The minute the setting switches to the outside world (a subway car, indicated by a couple of chairs), Godfrey is a different man. Bowen handles the transition brilliantly: no longer cowering with anxiety, he turns smart, smooth. No wonder he proves catnip to a seemingly timid foreign woman in need of directions – in every sense.
The play takes a wild 180-degree turn from here, which I wouldn’t wish to spoil (I do feel obliged, though, to credit Natalia Payne for her note-perfect, spot-on imitation of Lili Marlene). This turn of events naturally disturbs the girls – already bridling at their Father-given names, “Darling Angel,” and “Devout Mary” – and also thwarts the designs that their avant-garde, Communist aunt Lily Ann (Sharina Martin, smartly turned out and prickly with underutilized intelligence) has on her now-available brother-in-law. (Nottage drops liberal hints that before Godfrey’s marriage and this hyper-Christian postlude, the two had some history.)
Every single actor turns in a performance which could not conceivably be improved upon. If you weren’t fortunate enough to be on hand for the play’s debut, don’t miss this opportunity to catch up.
Crumbs from the Table of Joy opened March 7, 2023, at Theatre Row and runs through April 1. Tickets and information: keencompany.org
