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Grand Concourse
by Joel Benjamin Heidi Schreck’s Grand Concourse is a gentle, yet sharply focused look at the complex interactions of four very different people working together in a church soup kitchen in a poor neighborhood in the Bronx: the genteel, compassionate nun, Shelley (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) whose infinite patience is sorely tested; Emma (Ismenia Mendes), a needy young lady whose psychopathic nature reveals itself with truly awful consequences; Oscar (Bobby Moreno), the young Dominican-American handyman whose fidelity to his fiancée is threatened; and Frog (Lee Wilkof), a sweet-natured psychotic homeless man who inadvertently benefits from being a pain in the butt to all the others. Rachel Hauck’s set, a perfect re-creation of an industrial-sized, much-used kitchen with its dented stainless steel appliances, lots of huge pots and garish fluorescent lighting, provides the microcosm in which these four people interact also helped by Jessica Pabst’s well-observed costumes.
Over-worked Shelley, who’s wavering in her religious devotion, takes in volunteer Emma, a nineteen year old college dropout, to help feed the homeless who flock to the church each day. Emma proves to be a quick learner, but very needy, suddenly declaring that she has cancer, changing the dynamic of her relationships with Shelley. Emma more than flirts with the twenty-something Oscar but also manages to help the old guy, Frog actually find a job. As the months go on, each reveals their feelings, their talents and their insecurities. Ms. Schreck manages that rare playwrighting balancing act of making even the darkest person three-dimensionally fascinating and richly brought to life. By the end of the play, their life paths have been changed—for better or worse—by having spent time working, gossiping, hurting and helping. Ms. Mendes captures the pathological neediness of Emma, while Mr. Moreno’s sweet, slightly confused Oscar avoids cliché and caricature. He is a man-child caught between sensitivity and latino machismo. All the actors are fine, with Lee Wilkof accomplishing the impossible of making an annoying compulsive lovable, but it’s Ms. Tyler Bernstine’s Shelley that truly makes Grand Concourse worth seeing, her final few seconds on stage were beautiful to behold as she finally is able to let go of all her frustrations and change herself right before our eyes. She literally and figuratively has the last word. Kip Fagan, the director, isn’t afraid to keep the pace casual without ever slowing the conversations down. He allows time for looks, breaths and a natural unspooling of events. Grand Concourse (through November 30, 2014) 
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