This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on February 10, 2026. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. Ledger subscribers can add the Toppman on the Arts newsletter on their “My Account” page.
Review: ‘Primary Trust’ blossoms into a deeply moving portrait of a man shedding protective illusions and learning, at last, to trust himself
by Lawrence Toppman
Midway through Three Bone Theater’s production of “Primary Trust,” I wondered why this play won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It seemed mildly funny, mildly touching, admirably concise — one 90-minute act without an intermission — and serious in intent. And yet …
Then I found out why. By the end, I had been deeply moved by one man’s journey from paralyzed grief to potential happiness. Much of the credit goes to Miles Thompson, whose utterly natural performance as the withdrawn Kenneth ranks among the most convincing stage appearances I’ve seen in many moons. But Eboni Booth’s unassuming, honest writing also sneaked up on me and quietly wrung me out.
Kenneth, our narrator, seems cheerful enough on our first meeting in a mythical town near Rochester, N.Y. He’s in his late 30s, has worked in the same bookstore for 20 years and drinks Mai Tais every night at a bar called Wally’s with his best friend, Bert (unflappably calm Marvin King). It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Bert’s imaginary; Kenneth quickly informs us that he’s based on a wise, caring older man who helped Kenneth long ago.
Bert serves as Kenneth’s conscience, a cheerleader when he’s down, a brake on self-destructive impulses, a problem-solver when Kenneth’s at sea. He’s never been needed more than the day bookstore owner Sam (Tim Huffman, effective in this and other roles) tells Kenneth he’s selling the store and moving to Arizona.
Suddenly, Kenneth’s world of comfortingly exact routines cracks apart. Just as suddenly, after a brief period of adjustment, Kenneth’s subconscious decides he doesn’t need Bert any longer. Though amiable Wally’s waitress Corrina (Frandasia Williams) helps Kenneth get work at a bank, she can’t stave off the identity crisis we see building. (Special props to Williams, who plays multiple roles with exuberance: These extroverted interactions with Kenneth don’t throw Thompson in the shade but illuminate the details of his internalized performance.)
The title refers not only to the bank where Kenneth gets a job but to Bert, the only “person” Kenneth trusts entirely; he has no confidence in the part of himself he sees as separate from Bert. I wondered if Booth wanted us to think of Kenneth as someone on the autism-Asperger’s spectrum, someone both trapped and reassured by a fragile sequence of patterns he’s constructed to stay sane.
But Booth said in a revealing interview that “I think it’s about mental illness in the way that I feel like we all mentally struggle.” In the end, the play comes off as the story of a man so broken by a trauma long ago that he has built a carapace around himself. When it’s peeled away, he’s emotionally naked and terrified.
“Primary Trust” moves quickly in the hands of director Tiffany Bryant-Jackson, who expertly juggles unobtrusive set shifts and costume changes without breaking the pace. Yet we have time to think about the importance of second chances, compassion for fallibility, patience with people slow to respond to overtures from strangers. These ideas come across firmly but subtly, because “Primary Trust” doesn’t paint in primary colors.
If You’re Going
Three Bone Theater’s “Primary Trust” runs at 1545 W. Trade St. through Feb. 22. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
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Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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