Bulrusher

I was hobbin with my apple-head thinking of burlap and bahl hornin' not to Charlie Ball just to hoot over her golden eagles.*

This is a sample of the Boontling dialect of the English language from Eisa Davis' intriguing play, Bulrusher, set in Boonville, California, home of Anderson Valley Brewing Company's legendary Boonville Beers, in Mendocino County.

Bulrusher is the current offering of New Village Arts in Carlsbad. Under Kristianne Kurner's excellent direction, the production offers a taste of a sub-culture just barely alive. Once a small but thriving society, Boonville residents created their own language to isolate outsiders from intrusion into their ways. Members of the New Village Arts production staff actually traveled to Boonville to savor the flavor of those who still speak the language.

Unlike most dialects, Boonting's vocabulary often appears to have no direct link to American English. Amazon.com lists several books on the language.

Jasmine Allen is Bulrusher, so named since she was found floating in a basket on the Navarro River. The story of Bulrusher is also the store of Boonville. The folks we meet seem to share one thing in common, the need for a serious connection with somebody else.

Schoolch, wonderfully underplayed by Jack Missett, raises Bulrush. Yet, he is lacking an adult companion, primarily due to a total lack of social skills.

Madame runs a house of madres (prostitutes). Sandra Ellis-Troy has to be the most charming proprietor in the business. One of her girls' regular customers is Logger (Grandison M. Phelps III), a rare black person in this tight-knit village. While Madame threatens to sell her establishment each year, and Logger would like more than just a romp in the sack, both seem to be floundering.

Another resident, Boy (Tim Parker), seems either at a loss or too focused on his desire for Bulrusher. She does not take kindly to affections she has no interest for.

An out-of-towner appears from the deep-south. The lovely Vera (Asia Nicole Jackson), very much an outsider, becomes friends with the naïve Bulrusher and awakens him to a new set of emotions.

One of the underlying themes of Bulrusher is sexuality. The lexicon of the community offers a vast array of words describing sex, the act, the relationships, and all things else of a sexual nature. Playwright Davis set the play in the summer and fall of 1955, the onset of Civil Rights movement. The parallels are obvious.

Staged on four distinct sets, the plays moves fluidly from scene to scene. The cast reveal their changing relationships with equal fluidity. In fact, that is much of the joy of Bulrusher. There are just the right amount of surprises, all nicely forecast, if you are extremely perceptive.

New Village Arts has again provided its audiences with excellent theater - this time with probably their most controversial production.

*Rough translation: I was dancing with my girlfriend thinking of sexual intercourse and good drinking not to embarrass just to laugh over her underwear (made from Golden Eagle brand flour sacks).