The funeral home: a place to grieve, to come together, to reflect. And sometimes swear. A lot. Oh and then there’s the corpse that disappears along with one of the mourner’s pants.

And that’s just the opening of Our Lady of 121^st Street, on stage now at Road Less Traveled Productions. This is another dark dramedy by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Co-directors Scott Behrend and Mike Doben had quite the cast telling quite the story.

The corpse was Sister Rose, a beloved member of this New York City community. When she passed, those she touched showed up to pay their respects and maybe settle a few scores. Marcia her niece (Jenn Stafford) and her friend Sonia (Eve Everette) are the uptown girls co-mingling with the neighborhood regulars. Inez (Davida Evette Tolbert) has moved on since her marriage to Rooftop (Peter Johnson) failed, yet she’s still peeved at feisty Norca (Melinda Capeles) for her…let’s call it interference in their marriage. Flip (Xavier Harris) implores his partner Gail (Bobby Cooke) to stop calling him Robert around his old friends and to ratchet back his affectations. Edwin (Alejandro Gabriel Gomez) is the stressed caregiver for his younger brother Pinky (Dan Torres). Victor (David C. Mitchell) is the mourner whose who pants went missing as he kept evening vigil at Sister Rose’s coffin.  Johnny Rowe is Balthazar the investigator who brings his own challenges to his grim job. Finally, Father Lux (Peter Palmisano) is the spiritual leader of this tribe who admits to his own struggles while staying true to his ministry. His scenes with Rooftop are particularly funny and touching, too. (“It’s a confessional, not a conversational,” he roars during Rooftop’s over-the-top stories behind the screen.)

This script plays like a series of character-driven vignettes, pieced together by the commonality of place and connection to the late Sister Rose. We get to know each character for who they are, through their anger, their chaos, and their sorrow. There is a poignancy to their stories, too, especially brothers Pinky and Edwin. Torres is remarkable as Pinky who suffered brain damage at the accidental hand of his brother who is atoning for the mishap with personal commitment.

Collin Ranney keeps the set simple, with actors moving their straight-back chairs around the stage to carve out their own scenes. This placement suggests every neighborhood haunt from a bar to a confessional.

The language is blue, and the passion is real, which is what makes this production so compelling. Our Lady of 121^st Street runs a fast-paced two hours with a brief intermission until March 23.