Review: ‘Primary Trust’ at the Mark Taper Forum Is an Unassumingly Gut-Wrenching Triumph

Some plays ask audiences to expectantly lean forward rather than idly sit back. Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust, now at the Mark Taper Forum in a deeply affecting production directed by Knud Adams through June 28th, rewards that attentiveness with extraordinary emotional breadth. What initially presents itself as a modest character study incrementally expands into something far more piercing where loneliness, trauma, memory, and ultimately mending — by way of the engine of vulnerability — are valorously on display.

Following his acclaimed staging of English at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts earlier this year, Adams once again demonstrates a remarkable sensitivity toward interiority. He trusts pauses, punctuated via a call bell, without allowing them to stagnate momentum, giving characters room to breathe while subtly tightening the tension underneath seemingly ordinary exchanges. The result is a production that feels refreshingly and often startlingly humane. This Mark Taper engagement also continues Adams’ close relationship with the material after directing the play’s West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in 2024, and that familiarity is evident by how compellingly the staging gets its messages across.

Set in the fictional town of Cranberry, New York, Primary Trust follows Kenneth, a socially isolated 38-year-old bookstore employee whose life revolves around routine: work, mai tais at the local tiki hut bar Wally’s, and nightly get-togethers with his best friend Bert who is, suffice it to say, “real but not everyone can see him.” The predictability of Kenneth’s rituals has become a form of shelter, insulating him from uncertainties he has little interest in confronting. When Kenneth unexpectedly loses the job he’s held for his entire adult life, the fragile architecture of his existence begins to fracture, forcing him into encounters and reckonings he has spent years eschewing.

At the center of the drama is Petey McGee, whose portrayal of Kenneth is well-calibrated. McGee avoids reducing the character to eccentricity or overt fragility, instead crafting someone painfully aware of his discomfort within the world yet desperate to maintain equilibrium. His line deliveries often arrive tentatively, as though Kenneth is carefully testing each thought before releasing it aloud. That precision makes the character’s eventual emotional opening all the more moving. Audiences, moreover, find themselves invested in Kenneth’s small victories because McGee makes them feel consequential and profound.

Equally compelling is the dynamic between Kenneth and Bert, played with warm charisma and underlying melancholy by Ugo Chukwu. Bert initially appears to function as a reliable friend — a relaxed drinking companion offering reassurance, humor, and tranquility in the face of disequilibrium — but Booth gradually complicates that relationship in ways that fundamentally reshape the audience’s understanding of Kenneth’s reality inspired by a tragic childhood event. Adams handles these tonal transitions masterfully, allowing them to come to the surface when ready.

The supporting ensemble is similarly excellent. Rebecca S’Manga Frank, who skillfully portrays (sometimes to great comic effect) an extensive array of restaurant servers and bank customers, brings compassion and steadiness to key character Corrina, the waitress who becomes an increasingly important presence in Kenneth’s life. Rather than positioning her as a simplistic catalyst for transformation, Frank allows Corrina to feel grounded and independent, which gives the relationship genuine credibility.

Meanwhile, James Urbaniak is absolutely electric in three roles: as Sam, the gruff but sympathetic bookstore owner; as Clay, the quirky but supportive Primary Trust bank manager who loves waxing nostalgic about his college football past; and as a fancy French restaurant bartender who adds amusing touches to the drinks and dishes he brings to the table. Although removed from the plot, composer and musician Luke Wygodny is integral just the same — situated on stage, and no doubt part of the overall experience, when he dings the bell at opportune moments in between quietly dazzling on guitar, cello, and the keyboard.

The production’s design elements operate with comparable subtlety. Marsha Ginsberg’s scenic work, through miniaturized buildings, captures both the banality and isolation of Kenneth’s environment without overcomplicating things. Masha Tsimring’s lighting design proves especially effective in modulating psychological space, often spotlighting Kenneth in pools of warmth or emptiness that mirror his fluctuating sense of security. Sophia Choi’s costumes mix effortlessly into the scenery and the cascading snow, giving greater visual credence to Kenneth’s journey.

What distinguishes Primary Trust most interestingly is its refusal to dramatize healing as an epiphanic outburst. For all its attention to solitude and grief, the play is ultimately animated by the possibility of connection, however unplanned. Booth understands the perils of loneliness and how its recovery manifests through tiny actions and their reactions rather than as sudden breakthroughs. Kenneth’s path, marked by moments of his own moving self-narration to the audience, is not presented as inspirational in a conventional sense. It is awkward, nonlinear, and frequently uncomfortable. That honesty is the hallmark of this play.

By the time Primary Trust reaches its bittersweet conclusion, the cumulative impact is considerable. Booth has written a play that observes human disconnection and, in Adams’ hands, the production becomes less about spectacle than recognition as seen through the bonds of friendship and an ongoing appreciation capable of eclipsing an initial emptiness. As Kenneth insightfully remarks, “Even though we lose everything in the end, it is the finding that is important.”

At a time when many productions compete for attention through excess, Primary Trust achieves something unique through an authentic and stripped-down intimacy within the world of its characters and the observers learning and reflecting through them. It is frequently funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and pensively hopeful without ever being mawkish. It is among the strongest plays currently onstage in Los Angeles and a tremendous reminder of theater’s ability to illuminate lives, particularly overlooked ones, with uncommon grace.

Cover image caption: Left to right are Ugo Chukwu and Petey McGee in Primary Trust at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, CA. Photo is by Jeff Lorch.

Primary Trust runs through Sunday, June 28th at Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum. For tickets and more information, visit centertheatregroup.org.