Last week, I attended the second production within the past year of the 2024 Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Primary Trust, at the Westport Country Playhouse. Last year, TheaterWorks Hartford staged the show, which won the Best Play from the Connecticut Critics Circle for the 2024-2025 season. As I sat in the audience this time around, I came to appreciate even more playwright Eboni Booth’s writing, both with her richly defined characters and the plotting of the work. The show is a gem, and the production at Westport is outstanding and should not be missed.
Greg Stuhr, Lance Coadie Williams, and Alphonso Walker Jr. in Primary Trust. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
Primary Trust is a show that delves into the character Kenneth’s personal trauma and how, over the course of 28 years, it has affected his employment, relationships, self-confidence, and interactions with the world. The play is, at times, heartbreaking, but, by the end, uplifting. Throughout the show, with the ups and downs Kenneth faces, you are cheering for him to succeed and make connections, which will further his life. By the final curtain of the 90-minute show, I had a tear in my eye.
The play begins with Kenneth (Alphonso Walker, Jr.) breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience, giving background to his life and town à la the opening moments of the show Our Town. His life in the small urban area is unassuming and follows the same daily routine for the past 20 years – work at the town’s second-hand bookstore and then retire for Happy Hour at Wally’s, an old-style tiki-themed restaurant with his best friend, “Bert (Lance Coadie Williams).” They share stories, laugh, drink mai tais, and thoroughly enjoy each other’s company. When the owner of the bookstore suddenly announces he is selling, Kenneth’s world is thrown for a loop. While he manages to quickly find employment at a local bank, the future is no longer predictable or secure.
Jasminn Johnson and Alphonso Walker Jr. in Primary Trust. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
This leads to a chain of events that includes a budding friendship with a Wally’s server, Corrina (Jasminn Johnson), an impactful connection with his new boss Sam (Greg Stuhr) and, most importantly, his transformative relationship with Bert. As the play concludes, Kenneth is a different person, with his life moving forward in a positive direction. The pain and internal doubts remain, to some degree, but his continued changes and on-going development bode well for his future.
The strength of playwright Eboni Booth’s work is its realism, pacing, and character development. The plot unfolds at a steady, incremental pace, allowing audiences time to digest and process what is occurring on stage. The play has been skillfully layered, mixing audience directed monologues with the banalities of everyday life. Each scene effectively builds on the play’s previous moments, slowly building a credible portrayal of an individual overcoming personal demons and hardships.
Alphonso Walker Jr. and Lance Coadie Williams in Primary Trust. Photo by Carol Rosegg.
Director Logan Vaughn adeptly mixes the various dramatic and comedic elements of the production into a rewarding whole. Her pacing, the rhythm of the show is critical and she utilizes long pauses within the action to great dramatic effect. Ms. Vaughn seamlessly moves the show from scene to scene on Scenic Designer Jack Magaw’s revolving set, which smoothly features all the locales of the show, keeping the production flowing with nary a pause. The Director nimbly incorporates Sound Designer Andrea Allmond’s cha-ching of a cash register that signifies a quickness in elapsed time.
Much of the success of Primary Trust is due to the actor Alphonso Walker, Jr. as Kenneth. He is on-stage for just about the entire 90+ minutes of the play and is able to command the audience’s attention with his sincerity, vulnerability, and emotional conflicts. His facial expressions, alone, convey so much pain and anxiety. Lance Coadie Williams imbues the character of Bert with confidence, level-headedness, and a discerning intelligence that is the ying to Kenneth’s yang. Jasminn Johnson, playing multiple roles, injects a dose of comic relief in her various restaurant server portrayals. Her principal character, that of Corrina, is handsomely rendered, and emotionally grounded, especially in her one-on-one interactions with Kenneth. Greg Stuhr, playing three roles, but, principally that of the bank manager, Sam, brings a goofy exuberance, yet also compassion and sensitivity to the role.
Primary Trust, playing at the Westport Country Playhouse through May 2. Click here for dates, times, and ticket information.
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