Kenneth is 36. Most nights, after his shift at the bookstore in a small town in upstate New York, he heads to the local tiki bar to drink Mai Tais with his imaginary friend Bert. Accustomed to his lonely routine, Kenneth is not up for challenges. But when the bookstore he has worked in for 20 years closes, he is forced to confront himself. Eboni Booth’s 2023 play won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Kenneth’s traumas—such as losing his mother at a young age—are slowly revealed, along with his coping mechanisms. He begins “to reach through the cracks of his isolation,” in the words of the journalist Naveen Kumar. This production, the play’s West Coast premiere, was directed by Knud Adams. —Jeanne Malle