A Soup Kitchen Where Even the Staff Is Needy
Charles IsherwoodNovember 12, 2014: Matters of faith and friendship, and secrets and lies, are blended into the stew in Grand Concourse, a modest but likable new play by Heidi Schreck set in a church soup kitchen in the Bronx. Ms. Schreck’s drama, which opened on Wednesday night at Playwrights Horizons, unfolds mostly during the busy work days in the kitchen, where piles of chopped vegetables are poured into big vats under the brisk supervision of a nun named Shelley, played by the ever-excellent Quincy Tyler Bernstine. Shelley takes her work seriously, so seriously that she arrives at 6 a.m. to clean up after the janitors, as her co-worker Oscar (Bobby Moreno) tells a new volunteer, Emma (Ismenia Mendes). Shelley takes her faith seriously, too, but lately has been finding it harder to find time for steady prayer. When Emma surprises her one morning in confessional communion with the microwave, Shelley sheepishly explains that the timer helps keep her devotions reliable. The arrival of Emma, a college dropout looking for a sense of purpose, at first seems a welcome addition to the small crew. Although other staff members are alluded to, we only see Oscar, who’s mainly on hand to keep the more obstreperous patrons of the soup kitchen from becoming unruly. Emma quickly becomes a useful pair of hands, although it becomes clear that psychological problems are not the exclusive province of the patrons. In the middle of a conversation with Shelley, Emma blurts out, “I have cancer.” This news naturally engenders sympathy, as does her ambitious plan to help some of the needy regulars find work. The first to benefit from Emma’s efforts is the genial Frog (Lee Wilkof), who wanders freely into the kitchen. Emma finds him a place to sleep and later arranges a series of job interviews.
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