Kenny Scott, Rolanda D. Bell, and William Thomas Hodgson Photo by Kevin Berne

And so opens Eboni Booth's Primary Trust, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Award for Drama–a comic drama in which 38-year-old Kenneth traverses a time-jumping journey with many starts, stops, and surprises to find friendship, to find security, and ultimately to find himself as small chances taken lead to big payoffs unexpected but well deserved. Under the heartfelt, imaginative, and attention-to-detail direction of Jeffrey Lo, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley brightens its stage with a feel-good, engaging, and impactful Primary Trust in which the concept of community and its power to accept, heal, and empower is a timely message needed now more than ever.

For twenty years, Kenneth has worked as a clerk and bookkeeper at the local bookstore, Yellowed Pages; for much of that time, he has found his way every evening to Wally's for the happy-hour mai tai special, ordering two at at time in order to share with his special–and only–friend, Bert. When owner Sam decides to sell the bookstore to developers who plan to turn it into a gym with a juice bar, Kenneth heads to his corner booth at Wally's where Bert awaits, ready to help him count slowly from ten down to one while taking coached breaths. Bert understands Kenneth's periodic panic attacks and makes no judgment. Bert is always there at his side when Kenneth needs him.

Kenneth, we will learn, suffered a horrific trauma at the age of ten; and it was then that he met Bert, who gave the boy needed comfort and hope. Since that event, Kenneth has sheltered himself from any other possible trauma by living in a state of stasis: one job, one nightly routine, one friend. Now the job is gone, and even Bert seems to increasingly understand that it is time for Kenneth to branch out and engage more with the life around him.

A chance conversation with one of Wally's waitresses, Corrina, gives Kenneth the impetus to apply for a teller's job at a local bank, Primary Trust. Suddenly, Kenneth's world begins to widen beyond stacks of books, a tiki bar, and even just one trusted friend. Slowly, with two steps forward and sometimes one step back, Kenneth allows himself to picture the possibility of a new future and maybe even a new reality. And as he does, we in the audience lean in, trying to send our vibes to help this down-to-earth good, but also damaged-goods, guy succeed. We care about him. We're each at his side as one of his new friends, even if he cannot see us.

That sense of our connection with Kenneth is the power and beauty of Eboni Booth's tightly constructed script that is embedded with lots of heart and humor. The bond we feel with Kenneth is also largely due to the immense humanness that William Thomas Hodgson brings to the role of Kenneth. His proneness to anxiety over change is palpable and relatable to the times we have been hesitant to change, yet there is a glow in his face as he begins to take a few steps to that new future where new-felt hope can be so energizing. His sense of genuine humility, his sudden breakouts of unexpected, joyful play, and his ability to surprise himself with a newfound, public presence that wins him a boss' recognition and praise are portrayed by Hodgson in ways that make us want to reach out and give him a high five. And his grapples with grief–of losses long ago and a major one now involving his steadying help and guide, Bert–touch our own hearts and remind us of times we have felt our world collapse unexpectedly. In these and so many other ways, William Thomas Hodgson becomes that Everyperson who helps his Kenneth to mirror aspects of us all.

As Bert, Kenny Scott exudes the kind of warmth, encouragement, and support we all crave in a best friend where small talk about a favorite movie or how much to tip the waitress is just as important as his willingness to role play with Kenneth an upcoming job interview. Together, Kenneth and Bert often are like two peas in a pod, so similar they are in their likes and their playful jabs and quick-step moves. One cannot imagine but that actors Hodgson and Scott are in fact long-time, boyhood friends, their on-stage symbiosis being so deep and natural.

Something for Kenneth does begin to shift as Corrina's friendship begins to take hold and blossom, for she, too, becomes a new source of bolstering his courage to act and to truly understand his past trauma, having experienced that of her own. Her patience with him as he searches how to explain himself helps him learn patience to listen and seek to help her, too.

If Rolanda D. Bell's only role of the night were of Corrina, she would win our full appreciation for a stellar performance. However, she plays at least twenty other characters, and those others lead to audience delight and laughter. Hilariously, she switches backstage in a flash or sometimes on stage and in full sight a hat, a scarf, or a coat and takes on a range of accents, postures, voices, and demeanors to become a parade of different, quirky waitresses at Wally's or yet another demanding and often rib-tickling customer at the bank. Rolanda D. Bell is a barrel of laughs in these many, rotating roles, as well as she is the embodiment of true friendship and caring as Corianna.

Friendship of a different type, from two bosses who show heart in ways we often do not expect from a boss, is at the core of Dan Hiatt's portrayals of Sam, the aging bookstore owner who must sell, and of Clay, the manager of the bank where Kenneth lands a job. Each has a small-town joviality that springs delightfully from Dan Hiatt's own natural charm and charisma as an actor. There is a gosh-darn aspect especially to Clay, a quarterback-turned-manager who still has some of the clumsiness of a kid on the field who might spurt out something that is out-of-the-blue awkward, but presented with nothing but good meaning. Dan Hiatt's portrayals greatly aid and abet the ease we feel in accepting the genuineness of a play that could easily become too contrived and schmaltzy in the wrong hands.

Throughout, we are kept a bit off guard by the stop-and-start nature of the flow. Time halts and then skips some undetermined amount forward with the ring of a bell and a quick black-out, often quickly repeated. The result is a bit like improvisation, adding to the feel that Kenneth is tentatively trying on and letting go as needed different ways of looking at and dealing with his world.

A constant thread during the evening is musically sewn by Jonathan Erman as he–peeking from behind a hidden keyboard decorated in tiki fronds of green–both plays and mimics playing the kind of organ and keyboard music I remember hearing in the small town restaurant where my parents took me for Sunday dinners. (Recorded original music is by sound designer, Gregory Robinson.) Once again, Cranberry becomes EveryTown.

The town itself is fantastically laid out on a curved back wall melding into the floor and onto the edge of the stage, mapping in cartoon fashion the layout of the community's streets and main highlights, all designed with a smile and a wink by Christopher Fitzer. Map markers (like one might see in an app) light up as locations are mentioned, just part of Steven B. Mannshardt's usual lighting wizardry that is so often on full display at TheatreWorks (more than 100 productions in 30 years). Becky Bodurtha has a heyday, especially in costuming Rolanda D. Bell's many transitions, with Roxie Johnson gleefully topping off Bell's head with wigs and hair designs aplenty.

In its fast-paced ninety minutes, Eboni Booth's Primary Trust touches on many difficult subjects, ranging from loneliness to grief to mental health, while approaching them with a sense of genuine empathy, kindness, and goodwill. At the heart, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's immaculately directed, created, and performed Primary Trust reminds us of the critical nature of friendship and the empowering nature of mutual relationships. What better reminder can we have in a time when so many forces around us are trying to divide and separate us from others rather than help us connect.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Primary Trust runs through March 29, 2026, at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto CA. For tickets and information, please visit www.theatreworks.org or call 1-877-662-TWSV (8978).