Grand Concourse. Playwrights Horizons (Off Broadway). By Heidi Schreck. Directed by Kip Fagan. With Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Ismenia Mendes. Running time: 1hr 45mins. No intermission.
Grand Concourse: In brief
In a new drama by PH playwright in residence Heidi Schreck, Quincy Tyler Bernstine—an actor of soulful intelligence—plays a religious woman whose Bronx soup kitchen is upended by a hard-to-control volunteer (Ismenia Mendes). Kip Fagan directs the premiere.
Grand Concourse: Theater review by Adam Feldman
“The main thing is to have boundaries,” advises the dry, even-keeled Shelley (Bernstine), a nun who manages a Bronx soup kitchen, to Emma (Mendes), a new teenage volunteer. Shelley is good with rules: A self-described “clean freak,” she carves out a daily minute for prayer, timed to the beep of a microwave. Emma, by contrast, is a freaking mess: a tornado of volatility, self-pity and fille fatale drama, only partly tempered by her enthusiasm. Yet in short order, she ingratiates herself not only to Shelley but to a nutty homeless man named Frog (Lee Wilkof)—and to security guard Oscar (a warm, natural Bobby Moreno), whom she recklessly seduces.
Faith, trust and forgiveness are the worthy themes of Heidi Schreck’s play; Kip Fagan’s lucid, well-acted production gives them a credible airing, and the final scene has punch. But the play feels too long, and most of its twists arrive on a predictable schedule. In the end, Emma is treated as little more than the villain in a slow-burn, low-shock thriller: The Hand that Rocks the Ladle.—Theater review by Adam Feldman
THE BOTTOM LINE Shreck’s drama simmers without reaching a boil.
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