Theaterworks' Primary Trust explores connectivity in a broken world

On the best of occasions, elements of theater come together on stage in such a way as to create an effect greater than the play’s stand-alone parts. Director Jennifer Chang’s fusion of script, design, and actors in the Hartford Theaterworks production of Primary Trust rises to such an occasion, bringing to light how it’s never too late for a lonely middle-aged everyman of sorts to start to reconnect with other everyday isolated acquaintances in his neighborhood. In other words – there’s hope for us all.

At the start of Primary Trust, thirty-eight year old Kenneth has no besties, with the exception of Bert - a figment of his imagination who long ago befriended the psyche of Kenneth’s seven-year-old self as a means to help him deal with his mother’s untimely death. When, as adults, the “two” real and unreal fellows nightly frequent the local tiki bar, Kenneth conveniently orders a couple of mai tais at a time for the pretend twosome, doubling the effect of booze on his imaginative interactions.

In an interview Eboni Booth, the author of Primary Trust, talks about how she can be overwhelmed by “the mashup of the mundane, the quotidian, with the larger stuff.” She admits to fellow playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, “Drinking was a way to try to make sense of these very big feelings I often have in small places in small towns and tiny bars off the interstate. I’d be drinking a very unremarkable drink, and a particular song starts playing, and all of a sudden I find myself thinking about my past and my future, and trying to make some sense of it.”

Booth’s perspective appears to be shared by the conflicted Kenneth, who not only lightens up after downing a couple of mai tais, but wanders in and out of memories and meditations as well. Director Chang uses sound cues and creative lighting to convey those shifting perceptions and the state of Kenneth’s mind and dialogue. In addition, cast members deftly play more than one character or appear in costumes worn by another, allowing the audience to experience the same sort of haze a mai tai or two might put on their linear understanding of the play action.

In fact, right from the start the audience is pulled into ongoings onstage as Kenneth opens the first and only act with a lingering pregnant pause before he addresses the audience to say, “This is what happened.” What follows is a sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and yes, sometimes meandering tale of how a troubled mind can invoke harm, poke fun at, and yet start to heal itself by simply telling its story.

“Primary Trust” by Eboni Booth, directed by Jennifer Chang, runs through May 11 at TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 and 8 p.m. (except May 10, when they are at noon and 4 p.m.) and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. $33-$73. twhartford.org.