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To call Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer-winner “heartwarming” only gets us about halfway there. Let’s call it heart-restoring. TheatreWorks and director Jeffrey Lo have given the work an imaginative, whimsical telling that tickles all the feels as well as working out the cerebellum and the empathy muscles.
The initial setup is a show unto itself. Playing Kenneth, William Thomas Hodgson has that particular “it” quality of instant likeability. He steps out on a gargantuan Chamber of Commerce map of Cranberry, New York (a suburb of Rochester), to give a TED Talk on his beloved town. Christopher Fitzer’s innovative set lights up with little Google Map-style icons as Kenneth boasts of a grocery store, two banks, a bookstore, and a tiki lounge called Wally’s.
Kenneth’s energy is contagious, but something’s amiss. He is steadily interrupted by a “ding!” sound and brief blackouts that disrupt his narrative, as if his mind is locking up. In this and other ways, the play shifts us into the narrator’s off-kilter reality.
It’s easy to think there might be something wrong. Kenneth lost his mother when he was 10, and he was left to the tender mercies of social services. At 18, he managed to find a job at a bookstore, and seemingly has survived the 20 years since by keeping his world small and tightly focused. Now, at 38, he discovers that his kind-hearted boss, Sam (Dan Hiatt) is selling the bookstore and moving to Arizona.
As you might imagine, this sudden change sends Kenneth into a depression. He heads for Wally’s, his regular drinking spot, to consume margaritas and confer with his best friend, Bert. Kenny Scott plays Bert with a perfect balance of joie d’vivre, encouragement and wisdom. He uses a 10-step breathing technique to keep his friend out of panic attacks. He may, in fact, be too perfect of a friend to be believed. (That’s a hint, by the way. Ding!).
Wally’s has its own quirks, including a 20-person staff who all appear to be the same woman in different disguises. When Rolanda D. Bell finishes cycling through all these highly amusing personalities, she filters down to Corrina, a new hire who befriends Kenneth and encourages him to apply for a teller position at, you got it, Primary Trust.
The great joy of the play is that we can all connect with Kenneth’s struggles, and although his mental makeup is perhaps a bit more disjointed, we can all remember anxiety attacks and employment-related depressions.
Perhaps even more gratifying is the way that Booth deftly avoids tropes. I kept expecting Hiatt, who reappears as Clay the bank manager, to turn into the usual stiff, crabby boss type, but it turns out that our playwright is writing real, unpredictable human beings. In fact, Clay is having more fun than anyone, and Hiatt revels in the part. (Just to keep things surreal, he also appears as a mustachioed French waiter.)
Finding a friend, learning a new job — these are such simple matters, but Kenneth’s mental health issues make them hugely intimidating. And even though the play is lighthearted in tone, it’s backed up with serious and troubling psychological traumas. Throughout, Booth gives her characters a free-flowing and gentle humor.
The production is immaculate, especially the choreography of the “ding!” blackouts and the slide-in furniture (Steven B. Mannshardt, lighting designer, Gregory Robinson, sound designer, Laura Hicks Perreault, stage manager). I also think that the play’s one-act, 90-minute format is the wave of the future. It allows the audience to stay connected with the altered reality that has been so carefully constructed.
“Primary Trust” runs through March 29 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. Tickets are $34-$115, theatreworks.org, 877-662-8978.
