‘Mare of Easttown’ star debuts play about Chester County’s mushroom industry after nearly a decade of research

It would be easy to assume that Brooklyn artist Eisa Davis was inspired to write a play about mushroom farming during her time on Mare of Easttown.

The popular HBO show was set in Delaware County, not far from Kennett Square, Chester County, the “mushroom capital of the world.” But Davis, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, told The Inquirer the seeds for her new play, Mushroom, at People’s Light in Malvern, germinated nearly a decade ago, long before she played Kate Winslet’s therapist on the show.

“I was actually very familiar with the area while filming Mare of Easttown because I’ve been working on this play,” Davis said in an interview this week. “So, 2013 was my first visit to People’s Light and Chester County and getting to know all the organizations around here.”

Mushroom debuts Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Oct. 16 and, according to People’s Light, is a drama that focuses on the “intersecting lives of immigrant families” that “collide when a workplace injury, an unexpected romance, and the looming presence of immigration authorities have far-reaching ramifications for the entire community.”

Mushroom is a bilingual performance, with English and Spanish supertitles visible from every seat in the theater.

Davis, 51, spent years interviewing immigrant workers, farmers, and community organizations to develop the plot for Mushroom, while acting on the Netflix series House of Cards and writing episodes of the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. She’s written more than a half-dozen plays, including Bulrusher, for which she was a Pulitzer finalist in 2007. She’s also a trained classical pianist, but resists settling on any one of those arts permanently.

“I’ve been doing the things that I do since I was a kid,” she said of her passions. “I love to build worlds as a writer. I like to be able to step into other peoples’ worlds and see their vision as a performer and, as a singer, I really like to skip the logic, the left brain, and just go straight to the heart. They’re all intertwined. I can’t choose a favorite child.”

Davis, a California native and Harvard graduate, was invited to Chester County as part of People’s Light’s New Play Frontiers, a program that aims to “produce new plays that explore our American identity inspired by stories and concerns in our region.” In looking to build local audiences with local stories, Zak Berkman, producing artistic director at People’s Light, said theaters are “much more in conversation about the work and who is influencing it.”

Other New Play Frontiers productions focused on a special Philadelphia court for women arrested for repeat prostitution offenses and the life of Bayard Rustin, the openly gay civil rights activist who grew up in West Chester. The goal for the New Play Frontiers program is use theater as a “catalyst for social change” and in Davis, People’s Light found a playwright with activism in her blood. Her aunt is famed counterculture activist and writer Angela Davis. Her mother was a civil rights attorney. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where political action and social causes were a part of everyday life.

“I could have two choices, completely reject my family and their views or I could accept them and involve them,” she said. “It is very much something that is in my blood, in everything I do. I’m really thinking ‘Is this work, either as a performer, or writer or composer, for justice. Is it fighting injustice?’ For me, the work has to be about justice.”

Davis, over the last nine years, visited the Chester County Food Bank, the Cordivano Brothers Mushroom Farm, and the Coatevsille VA Medical Center. In 2018, she read a version of Mushroom to nurses and staff members at LCH, La Comunidad Hispana, a health and community center in Kennett Square that deals directly with the Mexican farmworkers and their families in the area.

“I’m really happy to be able to come here to Chester County and reflect all these stories and imagine a narrative, an evening in the theater that tries to encapsulate all I’ve learned and all I’ve yet to learn.”

Mushroom. Sept. 14-Oct. 16, People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, Spanish and English translations at all performances. Tickets: $47+. 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org

Writer Jane M. Von Bergen contributed to this article.