PRIMARY TRUST

written by Eboni Booth
directed by Knud Adams

with William Jackson Harper, April Matthis, Eric Berryman, Jay O. Sanders, and Luke Wygodny (musician)

set design by Marsha Ginsberg
lighting design by Isabella Byrd
sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman
costume design by Qween Jean
original music by Luke Wygodny
hair & wig design by Nikiya Matthis
stage managed by Rachel Bauder
understudied by Ugo Chukwu, Peter Bradbury, Paul Lincoln, Marsha Regis

Roundabout, Laura Pels, 2023

The New York Times: Best Theater of 2023
The New York Times: 10 Performances That Pushed Emotional Limits
New York Magazine: Best Theater of 2023
The New York Times: William Jackson Harper on ‘Primary Trust’
Ebony: William Jackson Harper Bares His Soul in New Play

2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Obie Awards: Outstanding Performance (William Jackson Harper, winner), Sustained Achievement in Design (Mikaal Sulaiman, winner)
Lortel nominations: Outstanding Play, Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play
Drama League nominations: Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play, Distinguished Performance
Outer Critics Circle nominations: Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Direction of a Play
AUDELCO nominations: Featured Actor in a Play (Eric Berryman, winner), Lead Actor in a Play, Featured Actress in a Play


REVIEWS

[Critic’s Pick] “William Jackson Harper performs with astonishing ease and vulnerability… Knud Adams’s graceful production resembles a miniaturized model of a provincial square… The play on perspective and proportion, with people as tall as buildings, enhances the undertones in Booth’s work that question who, and what, we pay attention to and why.”
Naveen Kumar, The New York Times

“The glory of both the writing and acting was in letting us experience the character’s sadness and, even more, the hard work behind his efforts to stay afloat in a painful world.”
Jesse Green, The New York Times: Best Theater of 2023

“Primary Trust was one of those shows that left me practically clutching my chest with feeling by the end. Harper delivered one of the finest, most exacting performances I saw this year.”
Maya Phillips, The New York Times: 10 Performances That Pushed Emotional Limits

“Director Knud Adams (English) continues his run as a pitch-perfect distiller of dramatic essence, working with the dreamiest of dream casts. The restraint in Booth’s script, added to Harper’s immense gift for clarity and stillness and a director keeping the ensemble on the edge of comedy and despair—it works… Primary Trust restores your faith in theater’s elemental storytelling powers, how it helps us be alone together.”
David Cote, Observer

“New York City’s best new play—truly, it is five-star exceptional, book a ticket right now—is happening off-Broadway… Primary Trust, as beautifully written by Eboni Booth as it is directed by Knud Adams, is a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel.”
Tim Teeman, Daily Beast

“Knud Adams directs inspiring performances that are loaded with extraordinary detail. He has also wisely chosen a most unusual environment in which to tell Booth’s story… Adams’ direction is as mercurial as Harper’s performance, and together, they keep us guessing as to what happens next.”
Robert Hofler, The Wrap

[Highbrow/Brilliant] “William Jackson Harper’s winning performance in the sensitively written Primary Trust.”
Dominique Pariso and Chris Stanton, New York Magazine

“Eboni Booth’s comedy-drama is so disarmingly gentle in spirit, and populated by sympathetic characters, that it feels like a throwback—the size of a Hail Mary pass (successful)—to another theatrical era… Directed with a gossamer touch by Knud Adams.”
Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal

“Extraordinary performances and this fogbound atmosphere are the show’s chief pleasures: every detail has been tended to, from the reduced-scale Main Street set to the way that Sanders, popping up as a French waiter, blows out a match. Puff! He makes a miniature production around a dying light.”
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker


(photos by Knud Adams)