Natural-born citizenship is no guarantee of being treated humanely. Case in point: Black folk harassed and rejected like immigrants in Lynn Nottage’s stunningly absorbing play, “Crumbs from the Table of Joy.” A grieving father and his two daughters emigrate from Florida to Brooklyn, whose complexities are foreign not only to them but also to most of us. Surrounded by an entirely white world, four Black characters struggle for acceptance, inner strength and equality. No wonder communism was attractive in the 1950s: it was believed to be the great equalizer.
Suddenly the play adds a white woman with comparable desires. Can the Black women accept her? Inside their house, the situation is reversed, as she is in the minority. And what about a Black man desiring a white woman—or is the white woman stealing the Black woman’s man? The Aurora Theater’s cast couldn’t be any better. “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” is exceptionally rewarding and a fascinatingly textured play. The table’s set for the feast that awaits you.
Lynn Nottage’s “Crumbs from the Table of Joy,” directed by Elizabeth Carter, runs through May 25 at Berkeley’s Aurora Theater. Raul Gallyot is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle whose theater reviews may be heard on KWMR Radio’s “Airwaves.” He lives in Inverness.