By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — There are many different kinds of art. Some is designed for escapism, some to make you laugh, some to make you feel good, some to make a point and some to make you think. Primary Trust, this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth, at The La Jolla Playhouse is in the last category. It’s a serious piece of art, designed to make you think and feel.
The very quick version of the plot is that a 38-year- old neuro-diverse Kenneth (Caleb Everhardt) loses the job he’s had at a bookstore for 20 years. He breaks up with his imaginary friend (James Udom) as he starts a new job working at a bank and encounters elements of the real world for the first time. He befriends a waitress (Rebecca S’manga Frank) at his favorite bar and starts to interact more with real-life people.
The play is very well done, the acting is superb, and you will be emotionally invested by the end. It’s also very slow moving. As they try to show the awkwardness of his interactions with other people, they use a lot of long pauses. I understand the intent, but for my ADHD brain the pauses were way way too long, and I struggled to stay focused on what was happening. I think the pauses could have been half the length and still made the point.
There was also another strange thing that they did: There’s a bell that the on-stage musician (Luke Wygodny) rings every so often to signal the passage of time a scene change. Perhaps it was also to bring those of us who spaced out on the long pauses back into the action?
S’manga Frank is the woman of 1000 voices as she effortlessly slides from one character into the next in a series of rapid-fire character changes as she represents various waiters and bank customers. It happens so fast that there is barely time to register the talent it takes for her to change her voice and posture that quickly.
Eberhardt does a good job of portraying a neuro-atypical person with compassion and sensitivity.
Rounding out the cast, James Urbaniak also plays several characters and provides some moments of comic relief as a nervous waiter and Kenneth’s boss.
Wygodny fluently provides soft musical accompaniment moving from guitar to keyboard to cello.
Scenic Designer Marsha Ginsberg created a really cute set with miniature buildings that represent the few businesses in a small-town locale.
The weighty show closes October 20.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.