Review: PRIMARY TRUST explores loneliness in small-town life

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A certain kind of loneliness comes from staying in one place, and Kenneth, the main character in Eboni Booth 's PRIMARY TRUST, knows it well. He has lived his whole life in Cranberry, New York, shaped by childhood loss and the comfort of routine. He runs his bookshop, meets his friend Bert at the tiki restaurant every night and lives in a world where nothing ever changes.

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But eventually, the world changes, even if it’s scary.

Jarrod Smith, who plays Kenneth in Crescent City Stage's production, understands his character’s struggles deeply. He talks about the role with a quiet intensity that reflects both himself and Kenneth.

The Architecture of Isolation

"My character is someone who lives in this small town in New York," Smith said. "It's called Cranberry, New York. His mom lived about 10 years until after he was born, and from that experience of losing his mother, he created this bubble of a world where everything's perfect."

Smith sees that Kenneth’s bubble comes from real pain.

“Since then, he's sort of found his way through the world. Cranberry is, for him, like Pleasantville, where everything's perfect. But of course, people's lives change, and the people in his life that have been so constant, they're starting to say, 'I gotta go this way.' And Kenneth's like, 'Wait, what? What do you mean you have to leave?'"

Smith was interested in Kenneth not because he is settled, but because the character struggles to communicate.

"It's the overall inability to communicate with the people that he knows, but then, now that he's stepping out and has to communicate with new people, I wanted to see: what is this like? How does this feel?"

Smith said he is naturally sociable—"I can pretty much talk to anyone"—but that difference made the role more interesting. "I believe that he certainly would pose a challenge."

The Performance of Vulnerability

A unique part of PRIMARY TRUST is how Kenneth speaks directly to the audience. Smith’s character guides the story, drawing viewers into Kenneth’s mind from the first "once upon a time" to the play’s emotional high point.

But talking directly to an audience, Smith has found, is far more complex than simply delivering words

"When you're really having a conversation, you're looking at people's facial expressions, and you're working off of that," he said. "So I know the words, but the inflection may be different because I might be looking at somebody who doesn't buy it. So I might be like, 'Hey, listen, this is what it is. This is what's happening. This is how I'm feeling.'"

Every performance is different, and that’s intentional.

"Finding new faces every show and trying to work my magic on them; that's been the challenge in doing that," Smith said.

A Personal Resonance

Smith understands Kenneth’s loneliness on a personal level. He has experienced some of the same feelings in his own life that Kenneth is just starting to face.

"I'm pretty much the only artist in my family. I started acting in college, then went to acting school, and I was out there by myself, finding things out on my own. Since then, I've moved around on my own. Since moving back to the city, this is the longest amount of time I've been stitched to a community of people. I certainly understand the loneliness that can come with moving, and how you can feel when you're losing community that you've accumulated and immersed yourself into."

His own experiences help him understand the play’s main anxiety in a way that goes beyond acting.

"Because of certain decisions—because you think, 'What is the betterment of my career?'—you have to leave that place. And it's as if it's never happened, you know?"

This reflects Kenneth’s biggest fear: that moving forward might erase the past, that making new friends could replace old ones, and that leaving feels like betrayal.

Bert and the Architecture of Support

PRIMARY TRUST focuses closely on Kenneth’s relationship with Bert, his friend at the tiki restaurant. Smith said their bond is essential for Kenneth’s emotional well-being.

"I see Bert as someone who instills confidence in Kenneth, especially in moments where he believes a lot of things can go wrong. There are moments of uncertainty, high anxiety, and Bert is there to ensure Kenneth that everything is going to be all right, that he can accomplish these things."

Smith said they have known each other for 28 years.

"They meet up for mai tais every night except the occasional Sunday. They've been drinking at Wally's, the tiki restaurant, for 15 years."

These details matter because they give Kenneth’s world a sense of ritual and permanence. When that sense of stability is threatened, Kenneth starts to question everything he believes about himself and his place in the world.

The Professional Transformation

A key moment in the play is when Kenneth gets a job at a bank. This isn’t just a plot point, it’s at the heart of his emotional change.

"That's the job his mom used to work," Smith said. "In stepping forward out of his past, he's stepping into this role where he's more closely connected to his mother than he's ever been. He's doing a job that his mother used to do as a bank teller."

The job teaches Kenneth something new. For 20 years, he worked in a bookshop, where he could "hide in the aisles" and avoid people. Working as a bank teller, he now has to interact with strangers all day.

"The bank has tuned him in to the rhythm of the people around him for the first time," Smith said. "It opens up a whole new world for him socially, because he wasn't used to interacting with people at all. This job has opened him up. And as far as his mother is concerned, he's connecting with her more because this is a job that she was working before she passed."

Loneliness After the Pandemic

Smith has thought a lot about what PRIMARY TRUST said about loneliness after the pandemic.

"We have a choice to move forward with things," he said. "We don't have to be stuck in this place, and it's not bad to be stuck in the past. It's always good to remember where we came from, to remember what people wanted for us. But it's important that we get into the world and get to know it as much as possible, even though it can be a scary place."

He acknowledges the paradox of modern isolation directly.

"With the oversaturation of news, one can be afraid to even step out of their house. But there are good people in the world, and they may be just as lonely as us. All we have to do is take the steps to find each other."

Smith believes the pandemic revealed something important about loneliness. Before, people could pretend they weren’t lonely by going out in public and blending in.

"But because of the pandemic, people virtually had to stay in their homes and had to be isolated. So there's no more cover there to even try to convince yourself that you're not lonely."

He found what happened after the pandemic remarkable.

"Folks were so excited to be around other people that it was insane. My interest level in people was so high. I just wanted to be around people and see who they were."

He thinks this curiosity is what PRIMARY TRUST asks of its audience: to step out of our safe, isolated worlds and truly connect with others.

Does Kenneth Find Happiness?

Smith answers the question of whether Kenneth achieves peace by the play's end without hesitation.

"He sees these people rallying around him, rooting for him in ways he probably didn't know existed. He finds a community of new people that have entered his life, that care about him, that want to see him succeed, that support him through every turn, understanding what has happened to him."

But Smith points out that happiness isn’t simple.

"He never sees his friend again, you know, because he's got new friends. So the memory, he's finding that even though he's moving forward with life and finding friends, the memory still lives on and still lives strong. It's just up to him to keep them alive in his own way throughout the years, moving on."

This may be the most honest part of the play and Smith’s performance: growth comes with loss, moving forward doesn’t erase the past, and we carry our histories with us in our choices and who we become.

A Vessel for the Character

Smith’s approach to playing Kenneth has changed during rehearsals, but not in the way you might think.

"I don't think my thoughts have changed much," he said. "But my approach has been a little more laid back, allowing the character to speak through me. There's gonna be hundreds of people that play Kenneth, but at this moment in time in this city, I'm currently just a vessel for this character to speak through. Being okay with that, and allowing myself to fade to the back seat and allow the character Kenneth to be present."

He also credits the rest of the cast. "Everyone in their roles are super fantastic. They bring their own uniqueness to it: Mark, Doug, Nicole, and even Steven, who's playing live music as the play goes on."

For many in the cast, theater is a second job they do after their regular work. In New Orleans, rehearsals happen at night after everyone finishes their day jobs. Still, Smith said the group has become very close.

"We put this show up really quickly, and we connected really quickly. We've been able to do some real powerful stuff. We're moved every single night as a group."

It takes a special kind of openness to admit that a play can move its actors every night. But that’s what PRIMARY TRUST does: it shows us the loneliness of today’s world and asks if we’re brave enough to face it and even braver to reach out to others.

"Come and see it," Smith said. "Allow yourself. Invite yourself to come be moved with us. Allow us to move you."

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-orleans/article/Feature-PRIMARY-TRUST-at-Crescent-City-Stage-20260515)._