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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Primary Trust
Then again, some of the people leaving the theater seemed to have a vaguely "exposed" look on their faces on opening night, I thought. But it's really a charming experience, like Harvey by Mary Chase, with its giant invisible rabbit following Elwood P. Dowd around in 1944 to their bar of choice. Now flash-forward eighty years to when Eboni Booth won the Pulitzer Prize for Primary Trust, after its debut Off-Broadway the year before at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Primary Trust is directed here with great warmth and insight by Tyrone Phillips. And the show rests comfortably on the shoulders of Gregory Fenner as Kenneth: a 38 year-old man who's spent a lot of time locked up in his own childhood. Somehow he seems okay at happy hour. But drunk or sober, "that guy is really likable," I said to myself the moment Mr. Fenner walked on stage. And like Elwood Dowd, Kenneth probably could have been "oh so smart," but chose to be "oh so pleasant" instead. Except for his occasional panic attacks, which are hard to watch. And his livelihood is hanging by a thread, working in a smoky old bookstore. Mr. Fenner is gentle, but highly detailed in performance. And when Kenneth finally summons up the courage to go out on a date, every one of his little tics and nervous false starts becomes part of an unseen beaux arts entryway the actor builds up around him, to usher in some gentle truth for his sweetheart. With seemingly little hope of success. Composer Jermaine Manor plays soft, reassuring circus-type music upstage in the shadows, under a great surreal set designed by Sotirios Livaditis. An upside-down cityscape floats above a luminous modern "city map" painted on the stage floor, like the kind of map you'd see on a cell phone. Primary Trust is set in a small town in the Northeast, easy enough for Kenneth to get around in. But how can he ever get a new job up in any of those elegant old buildings, when they're all floating in mid-air and upside down? His story is set up like a high-wire act, down here on earth. Kierra Bunch is wonderful in a variety of roles, especially as a waitress in a retro tiki bar where about a third of the story is set. And Ronald L. Conner is excellent as Bert. Alan Knoll plays three funny roles on stage with magnificent aplomb. Overall, it's an unexpectedly healing experience. Even so, some in the audience did appear to me to be strangely vulnerable afterward–not in the Joan Didion sense, from The Year of Magical Thinking, loss snowballing into broader loss–but "vulnerable," like a Helen Keller: convinced that loss could be reclaimed, if only we had a greater sense of it. Primary Trust, runs through March 1, 2026, at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 130 Edgar Rd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.repstl.org. Cast: Production Staff: Additional Production Staff: Director of Production: Jayson Lawshee-Gress * Denotes Member, Actor's Equity Association ** Denotes Member of the American Federation of Musicians *** Denotes Member, USA-829 |
