Shelley's 'Grand Concourse': An Analysis

Grand Concourse is a play written by “author and actress Heidi Schreck” (Joe Dziemianowicz). Shreck was awarded a one-year residency from New York’s Playwrights Horizons (Awards and Prizes). Critics have said that “Playwright Heidi Schreck seems to be attempting to wrestle that [“Faith rests on something of a paradox”] into dramatic form in her humane and heartful but ultimately disappointing “Grand Concourse”” (Aucoin) The play takes place in a soup kitchen in a Bronx church. Here workers aim to help the needy while they too are needy, especially Shelley. Shelley is a Catholic nun in her late thirties that is in charge of the soup kitchen. She is a prominent character that is depicted with many complexities that serve to show the texts own complexity. Shelley appears to be a nun full of faith,

Oscar, in scene three, while having a conversation with Emma says, “Who Shelley no way she forgives everybody” (27) This implies that Oscar believed that because of the time he had known Shelley and because of her vocation he could reassure Emma that she forgave easily. However, in scene fourteen Shelley’s faithlessness becomes visible when she is praying to God and saying, “I know that I need to say good-bye to let him go with kindness…I know that’s what you’re asking of me but how do I do it” (106). Again, because Shelley has faith she prays to God and acknowledges the need to forgive her father, but the prayer shows the doubt she has in her vocation that involves knowing how to forgive. She does not know how she is supposed to be capable of forgiving and showing kindness to a man that caused her and her mother so much harm. Shelley seems to want to be forgiving, but all the doubts she has experienced cause her to stumble and also cause her to allow the effects faith can have to