William Sturdivant (Bert), Bryce Michael Wood (Kenneth) and Pearce Bunting (Sam) (Photo/Dan Norman)
BY KAY SCHROVEN
“Welcome to Wally’s!” Actress Nubia Monks delivers this line repeatedly in “Primary Trust” and gets laughs every time. This is the magic of the Pulitzer Prize winning play by author Eboni Booths. Directed by Marshall Jones III, the play focuses on a vulnerable but likable 30-something man named Kenneth as he facees life-altering experiences. Kenneth is a little off. Think Forest Gump or maybe Rain Man. Actor Bryce Michael Wood conveys this off-ness even before he speaks, with his odd, fine tuned facial expressions.
Kenneth lives in a small, New York town of 15,000 called Cranberry; it’s near Rochester and seems frozen in place. Booth describes it as a time “before smart phones.” Kenneth is one of few black people in the town, but for the most part this isn’t an issue. The issues are that he is thirty-eight, lonely and about to lose his job. Kenneth lives a simple, routine existence: he works at a bookstore called Yellow Pages and goes to Wally’s Tiki bar after work for the happy hour mai tais. Here he meets up with his only pal Bert (William Sturdivant) where they get loose and yuk it up. Bert serves as Kenneth’s mentor, brother, counselor and as a window into Kenneth’s inner thoughts and feelings. There’s just one problem: Bert isn’t real. This is revealed early on in the play.
When Kenneth’s bookstore boss Sam, played with gusto by Pearce Bunting (who also plays Clay and the bartender) announces his retirement and plans to close the book store, Kenneth must find a new job. After more than a decade at Yellow Pages, he is suddenly launched back into the wider world. When one of the waitresses, Corrina (Nubia Monks) suggests he apply at Primary Trust Bank, Kenneth is skeptical. He’s shy and unsure of himself. With the encouragement of Corrina and Bert he goes forth with it. In spite of a disastrous interview during which Clay, Kenny’s boss-to-be, compares Kenneth to his brother who sustained a brain injury, Kenneth lands the job as bank teller. Clay sees potential in this lost soul.
Bryce Michael Wood (Kenneth) and Nubia Monks (Corrina) (Photo/Dan Norman)
Kenny is a simple character on the surface with complex, subterranean chaos beneath. As he enters this new world of banking his whole life expands, as does his self awareness. He starts to open up to his favorite waitress, his boss and yes, Bert. We learn that Kenneth was deeply wounded in childhood, orphaned at age ten and in need of healing. As it turns out, because of Kenneth’s courteous, helpful nature and his ability to stay out of other people’s business, he is successful at his new job. He even out-performs seasoned employees. This and his developing friendships fan his confidence and he becomes more willing to face his past, as well as his future. But this will require courage and risk, up until now, foreign to Kenneth.
Sara Ryung Clement’s set design allows us to see not only the physical world of bookstore, bank and Wally’s, but also to see Kenneth’s interior self, aided by the lighting, designed by Jason Lynch. We see the sports posters and beer signs at Wally’s which could be any dive bar in the U.S. We feel the neighborhood. You must ring a little bell to get service at the bank and the bookstore has that lived in appearance, the kind with overstuffed chairs and cats.
The play’s title, Primary Trust not only refers to the bank, but to the heart of the story: who can you really trust and connect with? The play does not ask us to diagnose Kenneth or evaluate the social services system which seems to have failed him, but rather asks us to witness the everyday needs of a man: employment, friendship, and connection.
Kenneth gets by with a little help from his friends.
His progress is incremental, yet liberating. He learns to take risks and begins to regain what he lost when he lost his mother. He is transformed by kindness. As I left the theater I thought of the memorable Tennessee Williams line, delivered by Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, “Whoever you are, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
Playing at the Guthrie Theater through Nov. 16 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage.
Primary Trust
Oct. 23 – Nov. 16, 2025
Guthrie Theater
McGuire Proscenium Stage
818 South 2nd St.,Mpls
Box Office 612-377-2224
