In his sophomore year at the helm of Barrington Stage Company, artistic director Alan Paul continues to impress with his selection of brilliant, timely material and exceptional artists both on and off the stage. The current production of Primary Trust, by Eboni Booth — now on the boards at the company’s St. Germain Stage in Pittsfield, Massachusetts — is just one more example of his keen acumen. In his introduction, Paul told the audience that he was smitten by the play when he saw it last year in Manhattan, and knew he had to bring it to the Berkshires. His judgment proved sound, as Primary Trust won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for best drama.
On a stage set with an urban streetscape of a small city that has seen better days, Kenneth, the protagonist, enters and centers himself downstage; in a halting manner, he directly addresses the audience, telling us he will recount the story of how his life changed six months ago. He provides some basic facts: he’s 38; he lives in the (fictional) town of Cranberry, New York, near Rochester; his favorite place in the world is Wally’s, the tiki bar where he sips mai tais nearly every night; and his mother died when he was just ten years old
From there, the action plays out in a straightforward manner. Kenneth lives a life of routine. He drinks mai tais at Wally’s during happy hour with his friend Bert. A lot of mai tais. He goes to his job at a bookstore owned by Sam, where he has worked for 20 years. Kenneth periodically breaks the fourth wall to give the audience a few more details about his life in a matter-of-fact manner, but those details are more significant than he lets on. We know he has experienced the trauma of losing his mother at a young age, but we also realize there is more trauma; his attempts to stay on track with this tale — pushing off other topics that arise as “another story” — subtly reveal that he has contended with other serious issues.
The drama is set in motion when Sam announces that he is closing his shop in two weeks to move to Arizona. This creates a bit of panic, as Kenneth has never sought nor interviewed for a job. But his view of life is opened up through his encounters with strangers who show him kindness: Corinna, a new waitress at Wally’s, and Clay, who works at Primary Trust, the play’s titular bank.
This is a big-hearted play about a wounded, shut-down individual forced to find the courage to step outside his tightly circumscribed life, and how the world delightfully expands for him when he does. Though it has a real-world setting in a depressed town in a time before cell phones (the ‘80s, I’d guess, given the pop songs that come and go in the soundscape), it also has fairy-tale elements, with its nearly universally congenial, helpful, understanding characters and a protagonist who encounters few obstacles beyond the primary trauma of his past.
Proving herself a skilled playwright, Booth has taken on several serious societal issues — including harmful psychological coping methods, the frailty and failings of the social safety net available to disadvantaged young people, and, above all, the current epidemic of loneliness — in a deceptively light-handed manner, with only a flash of conflict. She has built charming rhythms into the dialog, with oddly oft-repeated phrases like “pardon my French,” and signifiers like mai tais and martinis.
With his deft portrayal of the lead, Justin Weaks has the audience rooting for Kenneth from the start. He is onstage for every moment of this 90-minute play, and he is magnetic; the audience’s attention never wanders. His halting speech and movements flesh out this wounded, insecure character who undergoes a life-affirming transformation in the course of play, emerging from his protective shell onto a path of optimism and previously inconceivable goals.
Hilary Ward does remarkable work as Corinna — the waitress who begins to open Kenneth up to new opportunities and experiences — as well as myriad servers at Wally’s and a succession of bank customers at Primary Trust in a bravura comic display of quicksilver costume and accent changes. C. David Johnson also takes on several roles, bringing distinct elements to his portrayals of cranky-with-a-heart-of-gold bookstore owner Sam and understanding guy’s-guy boss Clay; he’s also effective in smaller bits, including a snooty, condescending French waiter. Kyle Haden makes Bert the encouraging, supportive, jocular friend and drinking buddy we all want for Kenneth, even when it’s revealed that he’s not all we’ve been led to believe he is.
Effective scenic design by Baron E. Pugh places us on the shabby streets of Cranberry as well as inside Wally’s tiki bar, the bank, and the bookstore. Quick flashes of lights and a buzzer noise, created by lighting designer Bryan Ealey and sound designer Salvador Zamora, cue us in to the passage time when there is no change of scene. Similarly, Danielle Preston’s costume design adeptly brings us scores of new characters, even when portrayed by one actor.
Director Jennifer Chang beautifully manages to balance the heartbreak and the humor of this remarkable play, which, while telling a seemingly simple story, conveys great depth and pathos; it’s a big-hearted work that had me in tears at the end, despite its happy — if somewhat surreal, with a slight darkness around the edges — conclusion. I left the theater thinking that I had just seen the best work of theater of the Berkshires summer season… even though it opened on the first day of fall. It’s a moving, must-see production, and I would gladly see it again.
Primary Trust continues at Barrington Stage Company’s St Germain Stage in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, through October 13.
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