Review: Laughs, heart and imagination win trust in ‘Primary Trust’ at the Guthrie

Comedian Chris Rock likes to joke that only women, children and dogs get to be loved unconditionally. As for men, it’s what have you done for me lately?

Playwright Eboni Booth passionately disagrees.

In “Primary Trust,” her casually exquisite 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner that opened Thursday at the Guthrie Theater, Booth expertly guides us on a journey of laughter, joy and heart. By the end of the 90-minute one-act, you will want to hug Kenneth, a dorky Black man whose inner life tugs at our care and compassion.

Bring a hankie to this show, which has compelling reasons why it’s a must-see.

“Trust” has shades of “Harvey” and “A Beautiful Mind” — where imaginary emotional support friends help a person cope in the world. In the case of Kenneth, he lost his mother at 10, a trauma that has never healed. Now 28 years later, and unbeknownst even to him, he’s about to have a breakthrough. The small town bookstore where he has spent most of his working years is being sold. Kenneth, whose favorite pastime is ordering Mai Tai’s, has to find a new job.

Using service bells and variable lights, director Marshall Jones III has found a wonderful cadence to toggle between Kenneth’s reality and his inner life. The action plays out on Sara Ryung Clement’s large, yawning set.

Bryce Michael Wood, who plays Kenneth, delivers a beautiful and nuanced performance. A bank manager likens Kenneth to his brain-damaged brother, and Wood finds an opened-face naivete and innocence of one yearning to be understood and loved. At other times, Kenneth seems like a savant, and the actor imbues the character with a similar air of deep knowing.

Will Sturdivant is kind and witty as Kenneth’s best friend Bert, a character that pops up unexpectedly and feels like our star’s conscience and emotional support. Sturdivant invests Bert with the deep understanding of a brother/therapist who, ultimately, has to make a tough action to help Kenneth realize that he can move, even dance, without a crutch.

Nubia Monks shines as a series of waiters, bank customers and Kenneth’s love interest, Corrina. In her hands, these small roles are not just an opportunity to reveal her range from singing hipster to take-no-mess grandmother or from styling man to profiling woman. They also are a showcase of theatrical delight.

Pearce Bunting rounds out the cast with similarly exceptional turns. He sketches bookstore owner Sam as a belly-forward chain-smoker. And his Clay, a bank manager and former football quarterback, is brimming with spirit who just needs the slightest prompt to start a school chant.

The stakes are high in “Trust” because it’s paradoxically a lesson for all of us. Sometimes what looks like impending disaster — like the loss of a job — turns out to be an opportunity for breakthrough and advancement.

In Kenneth’s case, he escapes a 28-year cycle of Twilight Zone-like trauma. It’s almost as if he has been in pupal stage and now, at last, gets to dry off his wings.

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 1 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 16.