Before “Primary Trust” began, Riverside Theatre was set to represent two separate locations: a bright tiki bar featuring colorful lights hanging and tiki totem cups, and a dimly lit desk in a soon-to-be-abandoned bookstore, which doubled as a bank office. The set laid out the tone for the rest of the play, which runs from Feb. 27 to March 15 in Iowa City.
The play, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, tells the story of 38-year-old Kenneth, played by Randy Jackson-Alvarenga, who has followed the same routine for nearly 15 years.
Every day without fail, Kenneth works a shift at the bookstore before heading to the local tiki bar, Wally’s. While there, he drinks the night away with mai-tais accompanied by his friend, Bert, who, by the way, is imaginary.
Set in an ambiguous time before smartphones in a suburb of Rochester, New York, Kenneth’s life is upended when the bookstore he has worked at for 20 years closes, and he is forced to face the world on his own. Well, almost on his own, as Bert, played by Barrington Vaxter, helps him along the way, especially as Kenneth gets a job at Primary Trust Bank.
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“This play is so sweet, it’s so hopeful, but I realized the play is kind of deceptive in its simplicity,” Saffron Henke, the show’s director, said in a talkback that occurred after the March 1matinee performance. “Because on the page, it’s like a four-character coming of age, maturity story. But if you notice, [Eboni Booth, the playwright] writes in different styles. So we’ll be going from a sort of narrative two-person scene to one character on their own kind of journey. I was curious about it.”
“Primary Trust” begins pleasantly before deeply delving into the journey of characters working through mental health and addictions, as well as maturing and growing later in life. Similarly, the story comments on the importance of relationships and authentic connections with others after hard losses.
This is especially true with the first friend that Kenneth meets, Corrina, played by Zafyre Sexton-Turner, who is a waitress at Wally’s. Corrina is one of the first people to truly listen to and wonder about Kenneth, causing them to form a deep bond throughout the show.
“There’s something more beautiful to me about someone choosing to just love you for you, and not being romantic just because they see you as a human being,” Jackson-Alvarenga said during the talkback. “It moves me every single time that I do the show that it ends with us talking about going to see [Corrina’s] family. Like she’s welcomed Ken into her family.”
However, Henke also noted that it is important for people to realize they must also trust themselves, stating that one’s primary trust must be primary, which she emphasized with a dramatic pause before the final word was spoken.
Although the play was written by Eboni Booth, the cast and crew truly made the show their own. From original songs added to record scratches and lighting, the show diverged from the original content just enough for the actors and crew to put their own soul into the play.
“I was smitten with the acting. You could see that every actor thinks about every way that they’re going to present themselves. I mean, it’s just brilliant,” Joyce Summerwill, an attendee of the play, said.
As Tad Paulson, the actor for both the bookstore owner and Kenneth’s second boss at the bank, Clay, said during the talkback, this play defies expectations; moments between Clay and Kenneth could go differently, but that’s a different play. This play doesn’t end in tragedy, and it truly is a feel-good, heartwarming show.