Bulrusher McC 09-23 033 The McCarter Theatre Presents Bulrusher By Eisa Davis Directed by McCarter's Associate Artistic Director Nicole A. Watson A Co-Production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre 09/12/23 NICOLE A. WATSON DIRECTOR EISA DAVIS PLAYWRIGHT LAWRENCE E. MOTEN III SCENIC DESIGNER SHERRICE MOJGANI LIGHTING DESIGNER KATHERINE FREER PROJECTION DESIGNER KATE MARVIN SOUND DESIGNER VALERIE ST. PIERRE SMITH COSTUME DESIGNER TOMMY KURZMAN HAIR, WIGS AND MAKEUP DESIGNER PALOMA McGREGOR MOVEMENT DIRECTOR T Charles Erickson Photography Photograph © T Charles Erickson tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com
A baby floating down the Navarro River in a basket gets tangled amid the tall weeds in Eisa Davis’ play. That’s why the locals, who speak the idiosyncratic patois of the Anderson Valley, Boontling, call her a “Bulrusher.”
This lyrical drama bearing that term as title gets a delicate if inconsistent production directed by Nicole A. Watson at Berkeley Rep, in a co-production with Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center. If Davis’ rhapsodic language can feel stilted in this staging, the gentle pace quickens as Bulrusher comes of age and finds her flow.
Jordan Tyson imbues the title character with a feral kind of fragility. She’s a strange and sweet mixture of clairvoyant and innocent, living in ‘50s America but feeling rather timeless.
Like all the denizens of this hamlet, she’s a poet in her own right, steeping her identity in the musicality of an idiosyncratic lingo. Davis, a Berkeley native, captures the charm of this language in which sex is “heel scratchin” and a cup of coffee is a “horn of zeese.” The playfulness of the dialect is a fascinating window into how a culture evolves in a pocket of rugged isolation, tucked between the towering redwoods and the roaring Pacific.
The play’s ornate language doesn’t spark with life in a largely static first act, despite Katherine Freer’s ethereal projections of water and sky and Lawrence E. Moten III’s woodsy scenic design.
The staging builds momentum as it goes but the mystical elements of the piece, a 2007 Pulitzer finalist, still lack visceral power. From the flirtations to the fights, as Bulrusher comes into her own, wooed by Boy (a wry Rob Kellogg) and bedazzled by Vera (Cyndii Johnson), the only other black girl she has ever seen, the emotions rarely cut close enough to the bone.
The play’s deeper social and political context, the way the characters respond to race and gender injustice of the time period, also feels skimmed instead of fully explored. The ensemble needs to dig deeper into the way the characters fit into this tight-knit village.
The heart of the town is the brothel but the romantic connections between the moralizing madame (Shyla Lefner), the jealous schoolteacher (Jamie LaVerdiere) and the lusty logger (a magnetic Jeorge Bennett Watson) lack potency. That’s a pity because the still waters of “Bulrusher” yearn to run deeper.
Contact Karen D’Souza at karenpdsouza@yahoo.com.
‘BULRUSHER’
By Eisa Davis, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Through: Dec. 3
Where: Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley
Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes, one intermission
Tickets: $22.50-$134; 510-647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org
Originally published at Karen D'Souza, Correspondent