Vashon troupe premieres new play

A new full-length production by the acclaimed Island performance troupe, UMO Ensemble, is about to have its world premiere.

A new full-length production by the acclaimed Island performance troupe, UMO Ensemble, is about to have its world premiere.

“Rubble Women,” written by UMO founding member Martha Enson, will open in Seattle on Feb. 26. The play is the first full-scale production that UMO Ensemble has produced in more than four years.

The play was named for the actual “rubble women,” who quietly and with tremendous perseverance picked up rubble and remade the city of Berlin after World War II.

According to the play’s producers, the play asks the question, “what gives women the ability to keep hearth and home together under significant duress — what is that energy, what is that endurance?”

The set for the play is mostly bricks, taken from a Vashon construction company.

Playwright Enson is a founding member of UMO Ensemble. She directed and performed with Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle and San Francisco between 2001 and 2005, and performs as an aerialist on rope. She is also artistic director of EnJoy Productions, an event production company that creates one-of-a-kind, celebratory events.

“Rubble Women” is directed by Sheila Daniels, the associate director at Intiman Theater in Seattle, and it features original music composed by Gretta Harley.

The cast includes Elizabeth Klob, Marchette DuBois, Amy Rider, Carina Jingrot, Kajsa Ingemansson, Mik Kuhlman, Tracy Hyland and Martha Enson.