Leo Tolstoy alleged, “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” With all the flair of a magician, Heidi Schreck conjures both in her new play Grand Concourse, now running at Playwrights Horizons. Grand Concourse follows Shelley (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), a generous and devout nun floundering at a Bronx soup kitchen where she has exhausted her philanthropic deeds to the core. Bone-weary and dog-tired, she is the efficient glue that holds the soup kitchen together amidst a dribble of absentee volunteers. That is, until the enigmatic Emma (Ismenia Mendes) shows up and keeps showing up.

Emma is that stranger in town, towing in her murky past and unsettling Shelley’s feeble grasp on her world. Along with Emma, Oscar (Bobby Moreno) works at the soup kitchen as the official maintenance man and provisional bouncer, scaring off unruly kids with rocks in their hands. Frog (Lee Wilkof) is a sweet regular with a penchant for bad jokes and snacking who completes the soup kitchen clan. Harmless enough, right?

But in Schreck’s capable hands, the play takes an unforeseeable turn as the doubts of the devout and the burdens of the needy collide. Heidi Schreck is a consummate storyteller; not only is she Playwrights Horizons' Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence, she is also a two time Obie Award-winning actor, proving that the Theater Gods gave her all the goods. And Schreck delivers the goods. Grand Concourse is a feat; complicated, smart, and disarming.  You will leave the theater smiling and shaking.

Enough praise cannot be handed to the remarkable Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who takes the great role of Shelley and takes your breath along with it. Mendes as Emma has the ease of an athlete; she climbs and hurdles and sprints through her whole peculiar voyage. Moreno is delicious as Oscar, radiating charm, guilt, and strength with equal panache. Wilkof as Frog brings much of the quick-footed humor to the piece and has the power to startle and surprise you.

Kip Fagan directs the short scenes with celerity. He is smart, tasteful, and deliberate with his actors as they tackle through their internal tussles. Much credit must be given to the entire design team who create on the stage the vivid bleakness often reserved for places intended for charity. At one point, Frog tells Oscar that you must either be predator or starve. One cannot survive when they starve.

Schreck holds loyalty to familiar archetypes and knows when to deviate. All the characters grapple with their yearning to be good and to be righteous against their base and wretched human instincts and this makes for impressive theater. This kitchen sink drama packs the laughs, the dangers of pathological altruism, and the all too human instinct to forgive. In Schreck’s voice, we have a welcome master spinning the stories of the holy and the wicked, and more often than not, those of us in between.

Grand Concourse is written by Heidi Schreck and directed by Kip Fagan. The cast features Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Ismenia Mendes, Bobby Moreno, and Lee Wilkof. The production features scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Jessica Pabst, lighting design by Matt Frey and sound design by Leah Gelpe. Production Stage Manager is Sunneva Stapleton. The limited engagement will play through Sunday evening, November 30, at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street). For more information and tickets visit https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/