‘Grand Concourse’ From Seat of the Pants Productions Examines Selflessness and Self-Preservation

In her letters to her confessors, the Catholic nun Mother Teresa wrote about her doubts saying, “My God, I have no faith.” She also wrote about feeling a sense of emptiness and silence, and that she was afraid to share her thoughts because she feared blasphemy.

It’s hard when a nun suffers a loss of faith, and so it is with a nun named Shelley in the profound and gripping play Grand Concourse, now being staged by Seat of the Pants Productions. Playwright Heidi Schreck creates four involving characters to tell a story about the limits of benevolence, and about where selflessness ends and self-preservation begins.

SotP is a traveling theater company, this time located in a church kitchen across from the Van Aken District in Shaker Heights—perfect for a show where all the action takes place in a Bronx soup kitchen.

The script wastes no time addressing Shelley’s conflicts since she begins her day by lighting a candle, doing her religious rituals, and then coming up blank when she tries to offer a prayer. She is at a crisis point in her life, with her almost-estranged dad in perilous health out in California. But she is intent on soldiering on by focusing on the details of providing meals to the needy who will be arriving soon.

As she starts preparing the meal, Shelley is teased by the church’s custodian Oscar (a solid Jonathan Rodriguez) who refers to the huge pot of victuals as “bum soup,” but he is instantly smitten when a young volunteer Emma shows up looking to help. Emma says she is a college student, revealing she’s going through cancer treatments and needs some contact with people who ae doing good things.

Turns out some of that contact is with Oscar, whom she leads into an off-stage room—while Shelley is absent—for some hands-on games with the handyman. But they are seen going into their hidey place by Frog, a homeless man who frequently hangs around, regaling Shelley and the others with his sharp wit and penchant for bad jokes (ie. “Why did the little boy drop his ice cream cone? He was hit by a truck.”)

Written with exquisite simplicity and directness, playwright Schreck develops each of these characters slowly and with precision. As a result, during the two-hour play (with intermission) we learn about Emma’s strong work ethic and desire to do more to help the people relying on the soup kitchen for food—such as helping them find jobs.

As the play unfolds Shelley repeatedly tries to pray, timing herself with the one-minute button on the microwave, but to no avail. And when Act Two arrives, these four lives crash in unexpected ways thanks to the brilliant script and sensitive direction by Craig Joseph.

As Frog, veteran local actor George Roth is believable every second, never overdoing his character’s ample quirks while making him a poignant victim of his own often entertaining but, as we finally witness, seriously disordered mind. Rachel Gold underplays Emma as well, although there are times when one wishes she pushed the envelope of her character a bit more, both early on and as her truths are revealed later.

In the most difficult role, Zyrece Montgomery as Shelley exhibits the strength to battle through her own depression and the feeling that nothing she’s doing is making a difference. And when she finally faces her moral exhaustion, the depth of her doubt rings so true it takes your breath away.

Grand Concourse is a play about real issues in a very real setting. This is one kitchen where you should definitely spend a couple of hours.

Grand Concourse
Through October 27 produced by Seat of the Pants Productions, in the kitchen of Christ Episcopal Church, 3445 Warrensville Center Road, Shaker Heights, seatofthepants.org.

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