“Bulrusher,” a trippy, poetic coming of age story set in Northern California, plays at Berkeley Rep Oct. 27-Dec. 3.
From left, Jeorge Bennett Watson, Shyla Lefner, Jamie LaVerdiere, and Rob Kellogg perform in Eisa Davis’ coming-of-age play “Bulrusher,” coming to Berkeley Repertory Theatre Oct. 27-Dec. 3.Davis is a Berkeley native and Berkeley High alum who now lives in Brooklyn. Her mother is a civil rights lawyer, and her aunt is prominent activist and scholar Angela Davis.
“Bulrusher” has deep local roots of its own. It’s set in Mendocino Country in the 1950s and suffused with the unique “Boontling” dialect of the small town of Boonville. It’s the coming-of-age story of a clairvoyant biracial foundling who was set adrift on a river as a baby and grew up in a nearly all-white town. Her whole world changes when she meets a Black girl newly arrived from Alabama.
“Bulrusher” has actually played Berkeley before, making its West Coast premiere with Shotgun Players in 2007. She’s been spending a lot of time with “Bulrusher” in recent years. She directed an online production in 2020 as part of the digital theater series Bard at the Gate launched by Vogel. And she’s been working with composer/co-librettist Nathaniel Stookey on adapting “Bulrusher” into an opera that West Edge Opera commissioned and plans to premiere in Oakland in 2024.
The Boontling dialect was something Davis read about in a book, but Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley is a place that has become part of her.“I started going up there with family when I was young,” Davis says. “It’s really been a haven and a refuge for me.
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