Primary Trust
- Full Length Play, Dramatic Comedy, 1990s
- 3M, 1F
- ISBN: 9780573710971
A touching and inventive play about new beginnings, Primary Trust explores the inner and outer lives of Kenneth, a heartbreakingly lonely 38-year-old man living in the small town of Cranberry, New York.
Description
- Full Length Play
- Dramatic Comedy
- 90 minutes
- Time Period: 1990s
- Target Audience: Adult
- Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
- Cautions: Alcohol, Mild Adult Themes, Strong Language
- Performance Group:
- College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre
- Accolades:
- Winner! Pulitzer Prize in Drama (2024)
REVIEWS:
"NYC’s best new play... beautifully written... a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel."
The Daily Beast
"The glory of both the writing and acting was in letting us experience the character’s sadness and, even more, the hard work behind his efforts to stay afloat in a painful world."
The New York Times
"Eboni Booth’s portrait of one man's loneliness and the danger of coping mechanisms will restore your faith in theater’s elemental storytelling powers. And make you cry... Booth’s fine-grained portrait of loneliness and the danger of coping mechanisms is neither grief porn nor a therapeutic fantasy."
The Observer
"NYC’s best new play... Beautifully written... a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel, following the life of a handsome, charming man named Kenneth... who – capsized early in life by a horrifically traumatic event – struggles, mulls, deflects, and cheerfully and not-so-cheerfully interrogates how to progress with his life in the suburb of Cranberry, New York."
The Daily Beast
"[A] tender, delicately detailed portrait... As in her superstore dark comedy Paris, Booth again probes the half-dread of working-class Black characters in a one-freeway-exit corner of the Northeast."
The New York Times
"Carefully constructed... Buoyed by a broader discussion of who society leaves behind and at the margins, Primary Trust is an intimate character piece handled with tenderness."
New York Theatre Guide
"Tender, touching... Eboni Booth has created Kenneth’s world with loving attention to detail... Primary Trust explores the terrain of loneliness and the gentle joy of connection between one human being and another."
Theater Pizzazz
"Arresting... the mild-mannered Kenneth is one of the most heartbreaking characters to appear on the New York stage in recent memory... Our desire to protect Kenneth comes from Booth’s extraordinary gift for creating heartfelt dialogues between Kenneth and his audience, even though he’s the one doing all the talking."
The Wrap
Characters
- Casting: 3M, 1F
- Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Black Actor(s)
BERT – Male, Black, late 30s-40s
CORRINA / WALLY’S WAITER / BANK CUSTOMERS – Female, Black, 30s-40s
CLAY / SAM / LE POUSSELET BARTENDER – Male, any race, 50s-60s
Available Material
| Name | Price |
|---|---|
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Primary Trust Script
This is optional.
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Meet Kenneth, a 38-year-old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally begins to face a world he's long avoided – with transformative and even comical results. Primary Trust is a touching and inventive play about new beginnings, old friends and seeing the world for the first time. |
$24.95 |
