RJ Brown, Andreá Bellamore and Louis E. Davis star in 'Primary Trust,' a play that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama last year. The feel-good production runs at the Everyman Theatre through March 2. Photo courtesy of Teresa Castracane Photography

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The new production at Everyman Theatre combines the small-town nostalgia, humor and life lessons of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry with the allegorical devices of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. The result is a thought-provoking, heartwarming and satisfying 90-minute play. 

Primary Trust is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning work by actor and playwright Eboni Booth. It runs through March 2 at the Everyman in downtown Baltimore. 

RJ Brown portrays the play’s central figure, Kenneth, a 38-year-old man with an easy smile who is part protagonist and part narrator.  

Like the stage manager in Our Town, Kenneth breaks the fourth wall to engage the audience with insights about himself and his hometown of Cranberry, a fictional, humble home to 15,000, just outside Rochester, New York. 

Feeling alienated and alone 

Kenneth, we learn, is a man who feels terribly out of place in his small town, despite having lived his entire life there. He is an outsider who would like to be let in, but he’s comfortable only in his own company and prone to anxiety attacks whenever his security is threatened.  

The first act of the play taps into the universal feeling of loneliness and isolation, setting the stage for Kenneth’s transformative journey.  

That leads us to Kenneth’s one true friend, Bert. Played by Louis E. Davis, Bert is the definition of “true blue.”  

He’s at Kenneth’s side every night at Wally’s Tiki Bar, downing a tsunami of Mai Tais, gently guiding a stressed-out Kenneth with breathing exercises, and offering support, sound advice and unconditional love 24/7. However, Bert doesn’t really exist. 

This is no secret. Kenneth, when in narrator mode, reveals Bert’s imaginary status. But where did Bert come from? How was he formed in the inner recesses of Kenneth’s mind? And why? 

Brown, who plays Kenneth, does a masterful job portraying a man who seems happy and easygoing while barely surviving. Like a child sprinkling breadcrumbs, he gives the audience informative tidbits that reveal his dark past. His mother died when he was 10, and he spent time in an orphanage.   

It takes the catalyst of a lost job for him to make a first step toward change.  

New job, new friends

Kenneth “keeps the books” at Yellowed Pages, the town’s used bookstore. He isn’t fired — that would be too confrontational for the play’s tone.  

The store simply closes because the owner, one of several roles played by the multi-talented Jefferson A. Russell, must sell due to health reasons and relocate with his wife to Arizona.  

Now without a job, Kenneth escapes to the refuge of Wally’s and the restorative waters of the Mai Tais. At the bar, Andreá Bellamore deftly portrays the entire staff, but the role of the friendly, loquacious waitress Corina is key. 

Corina’s appearance aptly reflects Cranberry’s town motto: “Welcome, friend; you’re right on time!” Her decision to engage with Kenneth that evening leads him to find employment at the bank that bears the same name as the play, Primary Trust. 

Kudos again to Russell, whose portrayal of the bank manager, Clay, was a huge hit with the audience — reminiscing about his glory days on the gridiron, making “dad jokes,” and revealing sincere empathy, all with effusive energy.  

With a talent for facial expressions on par with Jim Carrey’s, Russell crafts Clay into any employee’s dream boss.  

Not to be outdone, Bellamore exhibits more personalities than Sybil, portraying the cavalcade of bank customers Kenneth must face — from a child counting coins from her piggybank to a demanding older woman with multiple certificates of deposit.  

Toss a dozen roses to set designer Paige Hathaway, whose set is a true work of art. Every actor performs in an oversized box resembling a bar, restaurant, bank or bookstore.  

When “opened” (rotated on a swivel) to reveal its contents, each store is revealed to be much larger inside than it appears on the outside (reminiscent of the TARDIS spacecraft in the iconic British sci-fi TV series “Dr. Who”). 

Will Kenneth create true human connections by play’s end? Will Bert fade from best friend, to coping mechanism, to mere memory? Will the darkness in Kenneth’s past be dispelled by a bright future? Trust that it will. 

Primary Trust, directed by Reginald L. Douglas, continues its run at the Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette Street in downtown Baltimore, through March 2.  

Ticket prices range from $63 to $86, but the theatre also offers some “pay what you choose” seats for as little as $5. For tickets, visit everymantheatre.org or call the box office at (410) 752-2208.