Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Talks with New Speakeasy Artistic Director Dawn Simmons on Her New Role and “Primary Trust”

Dawn Simmons (R) directs Arthur Gomez and David Castillo in “Primary Trust”

By Killian Melloy

“But that’s another story.”

It’s a line of dialogue Kenneth, the main character and narrator of “Primary Trust,” uses often. Kenneth has been through a lot, and he touches on painful memories only glancingly, leaving it to the audience to try to imagine what he’s not saying. One of only a few Black people in the mostly white town of Cranberry, New York, Kenneth has endured the occasional brush with racism; he’s also someone who grew up in an orphanage. We can’t tell what’s going on in his mind, except for the inferences he makes, the way he sometimes has to put himself on hold and count in order to stay grounded, and what he reveals through his fourth wall-breaking asides and his conversations with his best friend, Bert, and Corrina, a waitress with whom he starts to become friendly.

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Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Talks with Joy Behar  about Her New Play, “My First Ex-Husband”

Joy Behar in “My First Ex-Husband” at The Huntington. Photo: Joan Marcus

By Kilian Melloy

An arranged marriage in an Orthodox Jewish community. A husband whose love of dressing in his woman’s clothing isn’t a dealbreaker — until he starts using her makeup, too. Men with wandering eyes and, err, vital organs. A husband of half a century who is still as randy as ever… to his wife’s despair. These are just a few of the hilarious real-life marriages described in the round-robin collection of monologues titled My First Ex-Husband by standup comedian, talk show host, author, and playwright Joy Behar. The play is coming to The Huntington Calderwood at the Boston Center for the Arts for a run from Sept. 12 – 28.

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