Review: PRIMARY TRUST at Westport Country Playhouse
A powerful play about loss, loneliness, and courage
Eboni Booth’s 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Primary Trust, packs a great deal of power about loss, loneliness, courage, and connecting with people.
Alphonso Walker Jr. gives a tour de force performance as Kenneth, a 38-year-old African American mentally ill man who was orphaned as a young child. He exhibits some of the traits of anyone who suffers from PTSD. Losing a parent is nothing less than traumatic, especially when losing an only parent. Kenneth’s social worker, Bert (Lance Coadie Williams), was with him briefly until he was placed in an orphanage, but he remained almost everything to him and he still uses the knapsack Bert gave him. Bert is now his imaginary friend (think Harvey) and the life coach he always needed. He tells the audience, Bert “Exists only in my head. But that doesn’t make him any less real.” Kenneth frequents Wally’s tiki bar “where every hour is happy hour” and drinks mai tais. When the bookstore where he always worked closes, he is uncertain about what to do. Corrina (played by Jasminn Johnson) a waitress at Wally’s, suggests that he apply for a job at Primary Trust Bank. It’s unlikely that a person like Kenneth would get a job as a bank teller because he is socially awkward and has avoided the world for so long. He comes to the interview in his usual casual attire with his knapsack and with the imaginary Bert who coaches him through the interview with the bank president, Clay (Greg Stuhr). Clay tells Kenneth, “I have a brother. Got into a car accident in high school, hit his head pretty bad. You remind me of him.” He hires Kenneth, who thrives and surpasses his Clay’s expectations. After a stellar job performance, Kenneth has a meltdown when a bank customer goes off the rail about a mistake he made when depositing her check. He forces himself to remember Bert’s instructions about counting backward from 10 to 1 and breathing to pull himself together.
Booth wrote the role of Kenneth as a part any actor would practically kill to play. Kenneth is likeable and you root for him throughout the play. He is complex and fascinating and despite being so emotionally bruised and lonely, he finds ways to cope, to connect with people, and to be productive against all odds. Walker delivers all that and he does it smoothly and credibly. Williams makes Bert strong and convincing. Stuhr is a delight to watch in the roles of Clay, Sam, the bookstore owner, and the bartender at the posh restaurant Kenneth and Corrina go to. Johnson is nothing short of amazing as she plays various waitresses and bank customers as well as Corrina, changing personalities at breakneck speed.
It’s not just the characters that make Primary Trust such a good play. There is a lot to think about. The title also harnesses the faith that Kenneth has in Bert and the confidence Clay and Sam have in Kenneth. The characters are empathic. Cranberry, the fictional setting of the play, is a suburb of Rochester that is declining. It’s a metaphor for the emptiness and difficulties Kenneth will face in life with only an imaginary friend to buoy him.
The play is so powerful, it could be performed with no set, but Jack Magaw's scenic design was simple but flawless. It had three sections - the bar, the bank teller's station, and the bank president's office. Director Logan Vaughn's direction was poetry in motion as the actors had to navigate the three parts of the set and make it believable. Thanks to Andrea Allmond's sound design, the audience could hear every word as well as her original music. Michael Salvatore Commendatore's projections were breathtaking, from the skyline of Cranberry to the restaurant backdrops. The colors he used are gorgeous.
Primary Trust runs from April 14th through May 2nd. The play is 95 minutes with no intermission and will keep you glued to your seat. The Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court in Westport. Call 203) 227-4177 or visit www.westportplayhouse.org.
Photo credit: Carol Rosegg
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