Opening with brief 1950s strains of Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, Eisa Davis’ “Bulrusher,” onstage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, describes the fate of a young woman who, as an infant, was placed in a basket and left to float down the Navarro River in Northern California until she was rescued by a passerby.
This baby, like Moses, proves extraordinary: She has poetic visions and a mystical relationship with the river that bore her and “tells her everything.” She can see people’s futures and has a fierce openness in her world.
It’s a near-magical, forested world, beautifully designed by Lawrence E. Moten III (scenery), Katherine Freer (projections), Sherrice Mojgani (lighting), Kate Marvin (sound) and Valerie St. Pierre Smith (costumes).
Co-produced by Berkeley Rep and Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center, “Bulrusher” represents a coming home for Berkeley-raised playwright Davis, whose fascination with Boonville, a small town in Mendocino County, and Boontling, its regional language, generates much of the play’s novel poetic dimension. The play, which had its world premiere in New York in 2006, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Directed by Nicole A. Watson, Jordan Tyson is brilliant as the biracial title character, capturing nuances of the 18-year-old’s social naivete, and at the same time illustrating her strength, anger and deep-seated need to care for others.
Tyson ably portrays Bulrusher’s increasing emotional depth, particularly as the character gets to know Vera, a young woman fleeing Birmingham, Alabama, who comes to town. Cyndii Johnson as Vera exudes apprehension and warmth, as she and Bulrusher form a relationship that is revelatory to both. Vera is the news-bearer with dispatches from the South, who introduces Bulrusher to the nascent civil rights movement and the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. Only later does Bulrusher learn that she is also Pomo.
Much of the play’s action takes place at the brothel owned and operated by Madame, nicely played by Shyla Lefner with sharp-tongued discontent. She’s surrounded by Schoolch (a Boontling word for schoolteacher), the taciturn, seemingly unfulfilled math teacher who raised Bulrusher, portrayed by Jamie LaVerdiere, and the chatty Logger (Jeorge Bennett Watson), who frequents the brothel’s women but longs for a sustained relationship.
Also on the scene is Boy (Rob Kellogg), the Boontling-speaking, guitar-strumming dogged suitor repelled by Bulrusher, whose songs are a highlight of the production.
“Bulrusher” continues through Dec. 3 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St. Berkeley; tickets are $22.50–$134 at (510) 647-2949 or berkeleyrep.org.