How nice it is to be personally moved and stimulated by a new play as happened with Grand Concourse by Heidi Schreck. First introduced to the playwright when her There Are No More Big Secrets was produced at Rattlestick Theater in 2010, I am not familiar with her writing for the TV series "Nurse Jackie." That she is also a fine actor with numerous New York and regional credits only confirms her as multi-disciplined and talented. I am pleased to bring to your attention her latest and another excellent play that again relies on as well as benefits from her Big Secrets director Kip Fagan.
Set in a soup kitchen in the Bronx, it involves the spiritual and secular conflict in which a Catholic sister Shelley (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) finds herself. This dilemma applies to the act of forgiving, a very basic and fundamental core of her Christian belief. At the start, Shelley is in prayer in front of a microwave for an amusing reason. In her late thirties, she is far from humorless but is, however, very serious about her commitment to the daily routine that includes chopping up vegetables for the hearty soups for the homeless, as well as seeing to the care and maintenance of the facility of which she is co-manager.
Along with her dedication to this daily routine, Shelley depends a lot on late-twenty-something Oscar (Bobby Moreno), an easy-going Dominican, employed as a security guard whose primary job is to make sure that none of the homeless make trouble, or make their way from the dining room to the kitchen — that is except for Frog (Lee Wilkof), an aging, somewhat scattered intellectual whose frequent visits are tolerated despite ample evidence of his unstable but not-dangerous mental state apparently held in check with medication.
For the element of danger and for the potential for the unexpected which you can be sure is forthcoming, there is Emma (Ismenia Mendez), a disquieting 19-year-old college drop-out. Her request to work as a kitchen helper is tentatively approved by Shelley, especially when Emma tells Shelley she has cancer and just beginning chemotherapy. Despite evidence that surfaces that Emma is more needy and unstable than either Shelley or Oscar are initially aware, they are unprepared for the havoc and mayhem ahead.
On the surface, Schreck's play seems uncomplicated as its four characters carve out an uneasy alliance. That it becomes a profound study in compassion and tolerance amid crises makes it very special study in human behavior.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine is heart-breaking as the Sister whose devotion to her faith is taxed to the breaking point not only by Ismenia Mendes’s Emma but also by a unresolved long-standing relationship with her own family. Mendes may be pretty but is nevertheless scary as the willfully deceptive Emma. Moreno gives the play a welcomed buoyancy as the sweet-tempered guard who allows an unguarded incident to come close to ruining his life. Frog is kind of a running joke through the play, but Wilkof's terrific performance defines him also as a poignant and pathetic soul whose deteriorating mind is slowly betraying him.
The kitchen has been effectively designed by Rachel Hauck to accommodate a play that will keep on cooking in your mind long after you see it.
