‘Crumbs From the Table of Joy’ opens 2025 lineup at Lyric Stage

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

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Lyric Stage launches into 2025 with “Crumbs From the Table of Joy,” a play by Lynn Nottage that centers the experience of a young woman and her sister navigating the loss of their mother and the remarriage of their father in racially charged 1950s Brooklyn.

This is one of Nottage’s early plays and director Tasia A. Jones was drawn to the piece to see what themes inspired the playwright early in her career. Nottage’s work always carries a certain relatability, and the themes of growing up and finding identity in “Crumbs” will resonate with a wide audience.

“This is a coming-of-age story,” said Jones. “I think everyone can relate to this moment of coming of age, of figuring out who you are and becoming your own person and leaving the nest.”

In addition to the challenges of life and girlhood in this era, especially as a Black woman, the protagonist Ernestine must grapple with her father’s second marriage to a white, German woman, someone outside of their cultural comfort zone. A visit from a vivacious, rule-bending Aunt Lily also throws the girls’ orderly world out of whack, perhaps in some ways for the better.

“I think also the play is about how do we carve out space for ourselves, and how do we find hope,” says Jones. “How do we find a way to find joy and be happy in the face of the world telling you that you don’t deserve those things?”

The cast is a powerhouse lineup of local talent including Thomika Marie Bridwell (Aunt Lily), Dominic Carter (the father), Madison Margaret Clark (Ernestine), Bridgette Hayes (the new stepmother) and Catia (Ernestine’s sister).

“Crumbs From the Table of Joy,” runs at Lyric Stage in Back Bay Jan. 10 to Feb. 2. Tickets start at $10.

The production should feel particularly resonant at the start of the new year, when Bostonians are thinking about their place in the world in 2025 and who they want to be. The arts, as always, are a safe space for finding the answers to those questions.

“As we watch the Crumps wrestle with many questions of identity, love, faith and belonging, I hope we can let the theatre be a sanctuary,” Jones said. “I hope we can let it be a sacred space to feel whatever we need to feel, and I hope it can also be a space for us to forget if that’s what we need right now.”