We’re told that everybody knows pretty much everybody in Cranberry, but Kenneth is one of those people who gets lost in the side streets no matter how small the town is.

Marsha Ginsberg’s dollhouse set design recreates an intersection of small-town streets that includes everything from a conglomeration of stores and houses to a church and the Primary Trust Bank. He has also wisely chosen a most unusual environment in which to tell Booth’s story. Knud Adams directs, inspiring performances that are loaded with extraordinary detail. Kenneth’s brutal history simply makes his chances at happiness, much less survival, less likely.

What’s clear is that life is a very slippery place that could easily go either way for this man, as it can for anyone. Whether Booth gives her Kenneth a happy ending or an unfortunate one won’t be revealed here. ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ Stars Kandi Burruss, Todd Tucker Join ‘The Wiz’ Musical as Producers We meet Kenneth at that precarious crossroads in his troubled life. With Kenneth, however, the failure to communicate has been a life-saving defense that, taken any further, could destroy him. His abrupt periods of silence are a mannerism that could quickly turn coy. At such moments, Kenneth invariably changes the subject, but rather than his extreme reticence provoking resentment, it inspires a need in us to protect. Amid the stuttering, the false starts and the non-sequiturs, Kenneth repeatedly brings himself to the verge of confessing something extraordinary only to stop himself cold, midsentence.

Most unaffected is how Harper delivers Kenneth’s frequent attempts at self-censorship. Harper facilitates those conversations by giving the impression that everything that pops into his mouth is absolutely spontaneous. Our desire to protect Kenneth comes from Booth’s extraordinary gift for creating heartfelt dialogues between Kenneth and his audience, even though he’s the one doing all the talking.

The Book of Occult by Simon W. Clark