‘Primary Trust’ at Speakeasy Stage imagines a kinder world

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

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Speakeasy Stage kicks off the fall theater season with a tender tale of hope, change and kindness: “Primary Trust,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth that examines how fruitful unexpected changes can be when we have the courage to face them.

The show centers on Kenneth, a quirky worker at the bookstore who spends his evenings drinking mai tais at a tiki bar with his friend Bert. When the bookstore, which also serves as Kenneth’s safe space, is forced to shut down, Kenneth’s world is thrown into chaos. He must learn to take chances and he makes some unexpected friends along the way.

David J. Castillo, a Boston native who is in the process of moving back from California, plays the offbeat, lovable Kenneth.

“He’s very protective of himself,” Castillo said of his character. “But ultimately, he lives life through this lens of joy and wanting to see the best in everyone, even if he doesn’t always see it within himself.”

Arthur Gomez, Janelle Grace and Luis Negrón complete the small but mighty cast.

Director Dawn M. Simmons in discussion with cast and crew of “Primary Trust.” PHOTO: NILE SCOTT STUDIOS

At its core “Primary Trust” is a vision of a better world, a world in which everyone leads with kindness and gives others the benefit of the doubt. In this world, even the peculiar outsider in town is treated kindly without a second thought.

“We are in a world that is demonstrably short with each other. I don’t know that we lead with kindness. I don’t know that we lead with trust,” said Elliot Norton Award-winning director Dawn M. Simmons. “I love shows that imagine the world as it can be, helping us imagine another way of treating each other.”

This is the first show directed by Simmons in her new role as Speakeasy Stage’s artistic director. “Primary Trust,” she says, represents how she wants to steer Speakeasy’s direction forward. Her goal is to continue to foster a theater company that can explore and operate as a community and a safe space rather than just an evening out.

“Primary Trust,” runs at Speakeasy Stage Sept. 12 through Oct. 11 at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St. in the South End.

Dawn M. Simmons gives direction to the actors. PHOTO: NILE SCOTT STUDIOS

There’s a common saying about Boston that goes along the lines of this: Bostonians aren’t nice, but they are kind. They won’t greet you on the street, but they’ll help you swap your tire in a roadside breakdown. Castillo has a lifetime of experience attesting to that. In fact, it’s part of the reason he’s moving back home. 

“I’m really, really excited to come back,” he said. “To come home, to my community, to people who I truly do believe are trying their best to, like, make everything better for those around them.”

And that’s what Simmons hopes audiences will take away from the show — the inspiration to reach out, to be kind to each other and to perform small actions to improve the lives of others.

“We keep hearing talk of the loneliness epidemic and how we wish to be more in community with each other,” Simmons said. “I think that is the power of theater to give people a way in, to be in community with each other, to be in fellowship and to relearn those skills of taking care of each other.”