Review Roundup: MOTHER RUSSIA Opens At Signature Theatre

Reviews are in for Mother Russia, now in performances at Signature Theatre. Written by Lauren Yee and directed by Teddy Bergman, the production runs February 3 through March 15 at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre.

Set in St. Petersburg in 1992, the play follows Evgeny, a young man adrift after the collapse of the Soviet Union, who takes a job conducting surveillance with his old friend Dmitri. Their assignment is to monitor Katya, a former pop singer with a complicated past. As political upheaval, capitalism, and personal loyalties collide, Evgeny finds himself navigating love, identity, and the uncertain promises of a newly opened world.

The cast is led by Steven Boyer, Adam Chanler-Berat, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and David Turner.

Yee, known for Cambodian Rock Band and The Great Leap, brings her off-kilter storytelling style to this dark comedy exploring espionage, cultural transition, and the cost of freedom.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times: This doesn’t sound like a barrel-o-laughs, but Yee’s play, which opened Monday at Signature Theater, is as funny as it is smart. This is a comedy with a lot on its mind, like Talene Monahon’s recent “Meet the Cartozians,” in which issues about Armenian identity brushed up against modern American pop culture.

Amelia Merrill, New York Theatre Guide: While bemoaning the childish concept of “unprecedented times,” Mother Russia launches into a Wikipedia-level Russian history lesson, quotes Billy Joel's “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” and somberly ends with references to “the Donbas region. Navalny.” The moment earned some contemplative murmurs from the audience, but it felt more rehearsed than reflective, if you’ll pardon the theatre pun. Mother Russia, both the character and the play, beg the audience to find her funny and smart in a way that sabotages its own story.

Joey Sims, Theatrely: Mother Russia is a tonal mess, but a savvy work in many respects. If Yee’s writing isn’t quite witty enough to sell some of her wilder ideas, she nonetheless lands at a stirring conclusion that hits uncomfortably close to home.

Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: In a recent interview, Yee said she’d been “subconsciously writing a cycle of plays about communism in Asia over the 20th century,” referring to Cambodian Rock Band (Cambodia in the 1970s), The Great Leap (China, the 1980s), and now Mother Russia (the 1990s). I can’t wait to see where—and to what decade—she’ll travel next.

Ron Fassler, Theater Pizzazz: The persistent pain and suffering of the Russian people never knowing who to trust become comedic fodder in this peculiar production presented by Signature Theatre. The laughs for which it vies are more strained than natural and only its ninety-minute length separates it from being a wholly leaden experience.

Average Rating: 64.0%