Bulrusher Book

Drama / 3m, 3f / Finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama

In 1955, in the redwood country north of San Francisco, a multiracial girl grows up in a predominantly white town whose residents pepper their speech with the historical dialect of Boontling. Found floating in a basket on the river as an infant, Bulrusher is an orphan with a gift for clairvoyance that makes her feel like a stranger even amongst the strange: the taciturn schoolteacher who adopted her, the madam who runs her brothel with a fierce discipline, the logger with a zest for horses and women, and the guitar-slinging boy who is after Bulrusher's heart. Just when she thought her world might close in on her, she discovers an entirely new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town. Passionate, lyrical, and chock full of down-home humor, this play is an unforgettable experience by a new, thrilling voice.

"[Davis] tickles the ears of her listeners...moving scenes on the banks of the pebble-strewn river...feel utterly true." - The New York Times

"Davis explores her themes in unexpected and evocative ways ....The still waters of Bulrusher turn out to run pretty deep." - The San Francisco Chronicle

"...an engrossing rush...Eisa Davis' gleaming marriage of poetry and myth... has a big heart and a wide-open soul." - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

"Mixing together issues of family, heritage, race and love, Eisa Davis' Bulrusher delivers a powerful impact with a poetic, deeply realized script and story. In the hands of director Marion McClinton...the work becomes transcendent." - TalkingBroadway.org

"Bulrusher brims with profound lyrical passion...a poetic play with much nuance..." - NYTheatre.com

"Davis has powers as a writer to find beauty in almost everything, and her play pulses with compassion and life. Bulrusher has the kind of satisfying, uplifting ending you can only find in live theater - vibrant, poetic, immediate and thrilling." - Bay Area News Group