Review: GRAND CONCOURSE Considers the Benefits and Costs of Compassion, at Artists Rep

You know those shows that won't quite let you go? Heidi Schreck's GRAND CONCOURSE, now playing at Artists Repertory Theatre, is one of them. I saw the show with 10 people. We all had a slightly different take on it, and we have continued to talk about it -- both online and off. I take that a sign of something good.

The reason this play won't let you go is because it's both subtle and multi-layered.

GRAND CONCOURSE takes a little bit of time to get into. It opens on Shelley (played by Ayanna Berkshire), a nun running a soup kitchen in the South Bronx, who's having some trouble saying her prayers. As she starts to get the soup on, we meet Oscar (John San Nicolas), who helps out as a combination handyman-bodyguard, and Emma (Jahnavi Alyssa), a cute little 19-year-old who seems to be volunteering at the soup kitchen as a way to heal something broken within herself. Then there's Frog (Allen Nause), one of the soup kitchen's daily guests.

There's no big action or witty repartee. It's just people, who for a lot of the time are simply trying to make it from one moment to the next.

The conflict in the play revolves largely around Emma, who tells Shelley she has cancer, but whose impulsive behavior -- particularly around Oscar -- gives a hint that there's something else going on. They are all compassionate, empathetic characters, obviously driven to help. As the story unfolds, it reveals more of what's behind that drive.

The play is a meditation of sorts on compassion. It explores both the ideas that through helping others we help ourselves and that devoting our entire lives to others can leave us without much left for ourselves. It's also about forgiveness -- or rather, about why we forgive and whether we always should. A few members of our group focused on the insight it provided into mental illness. I was particularly struck by the fact that the play is set in a soup kitchen in the South Bronx, which is the poorest district in the United States and whose population is primarily Black and Hispanic -- yet we are still asked to care about the problems of a relatively privileged white girl. It's quite a striking contrast.

It might be hard to believe after all that, but the play is also pretty funny.

The cast is first-rate. Ayanna Berkshire and John San Nicolas are a regulars on the Artists Rep stage, and this was my favorite performance of both of theirs to date. Jahnavi Alyssa's Emma is both sympathy-inducing and frustrating as all get out! Allen Nause as Frog is also both sympathy-inducing and frustrating, but in a completely different, totally charming, way. (Also, I just find Allen Nause charming.)

GRAND CONCOURSE runs through June 5. I recommend you see it -- even better, see it in a group so you have people to discuss it with afterward. More info and tickets here: http://www.artistsrep.org/onstage/2015-16-season/grand-concourse/

Photo credit: Owen Carey

To post a comment, you must register and login.