'Mother Russia' Off-Broadway review — new farce, like its characters, is still finding its identity

Read our review of Mother Russia off Broadway, a new dark comedy written by Lauren Yee and directed by Teddy Bergman for Signature Theatre through March 15.

Summary

• Mother Russia is a farce about two men trying to find their place after the fall of the Soviet Union
• The show benefits from chemistry between leads Adam Chanler-Berat and Steven Boyer but undermines its story with tonally misplaced monologues by a character called Mother Russia
• The show is recommended for fans of other period farces like the recent Archduke off Broadway

Bringing a metaphor to life on stage is a risk. A director or playwright may hope for a lasting image of inspiration that skirts any stereotypes, while an audience member may see only a tired trope. Lauren Yee tries to subvert this possibility in Mother Russia, her play now running with Signature Theatre after a premiere at Seattle Repertory Theatre. By bringing the character of Mother Russia (David Turner) to life as a babushka who is both Soviet government advisor and Moscow Art Theatre veteran, Yee tries to get ahead of the metaphor she has created, as if to reassure the audience that it’s not that serious. Unfortunately for Turner and Yee, this conceit undermines the play’s later attempts to appear, if only for a moment, sincere.

Set in 1992 after the fall of the communism in the title country, Mother Russia is a farcical examination of friendship and fraternity in the “wild west” of post-Soviet St. Petersburg. Upper-class Evgeny (Adam Chanler-Berat) can no longer hide in one of his family’s two summer homes, and he comes back to St. Petersburg with his tail between his legs. There he finds Dmitri (Steven Boyer), a childhood friend who is bursting at the seams to be buddies once more.

Chanler-Berat and Boyer have a bonafide bromance, the former’s uptight nervousness balancing the latter’s loud, flamboyant brazenness. They yell and threaten to shoot each other and dole out terrible romantic advice. (Dmitri, reading from a dated Cosmo: “You can’t call her until 18 hours after a date. And after three dates, you gotta blow her. Works every time.”) With the boys’ banter as a grounding force, the show is genuinely funny, even as Evgeny falls deeper into misguided love for Katya (Rebecca Naomi Jones), a singer who once defected and is now under the watchful eye of Dmitri’s burgeoning surveillance business.

The interludes of the Mother Russia character, while often also amusing, upset the show’s careful balance of rooting both for and against its hapless men. With the contained story of Dmitri and Evgeny’s misadventures and Katya’s search for meaning and music, Mother Russia succeeds as a witty condemnation of capitalism’s corrupting power. With the title character’s monologues, however, Yee’s play adopts a desperate tone. Mother Russia spouts the kind of commentary that insists it’s not political until the precise moment it wants to be, hoping the audience will be fooled into thinking that wasn’t its clever intention the whole time.

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.

Mother Russia summary

In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Evgeny finds himself back in St. Petersburg, where he is expected to rough up his childhood friend Dmitri for his government-crone-turned-mob-boss father. After Dmitri reveals his new shop is actually a front for a DIY surveillance business, Evgeny agrees — perhaps too eagerly — to help him spy on Katya (Jones), a former pop singer who defected to the United States and who has mysteriously returned home. Eager to prove himself to both his capitalist father and anarchist Katya, Evgeny quickly gets in over his head and must decide how much it costs to stay true to himself.

What to expect at Mother Russia

Mother Russia runs approximately 90 minutes without an intermission. The production features haze and strobe lights. There are also multiple gunshot effects and the use of prop firearms.

Scenic design team dots’s set features a large warehouse-like container onstage, with some of the action inside Dmitri’s shop taking place near the shop’s stage left entrance. The set interrupts sightlines for audiences on the right side and in the mezzanine. One character interacts with the audience directly, including by sitting among them.

What audiences are saying about Mother Russia

Audience members have shared early thoughts on Mother Russia on the theatre tracking and review app Mezzanine.

• Mezzanine user Sara Hardwick says Mother Russia is an “early contender for play of the year!”
• Conversely, Mezzanine user Jeffrey Rubel writes that the play is “a bit trite both in content and structure.”
• Mezzanine user Derek Kahle recommends Yee’s new play, which “manages to land a gut punch towards the end.”

Who should see Mother Russia

• If you enjoyed Adam Chanler-Berat’s recent Off-Broadway turns in I Can Get It For You Wholesale and Assassins, you’ll love his heightened, tongue-in-cheek performance as the anxious Evgeny.
• If you saw Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke at Roundabout Theatre Company and are in the mood for another farcical period piece, Mother Russia is the show for you.
• Fans of last season’s Encores! staging of Urinetown will want to catch another production directed by Drama Desk Award nominee Teddy Bergman.

Learn more about Mother Russia off Broadway

Is it not enough for a playwright to place their characters on stage and trust that the audience is smart enough to understand the point they want to make? Though the relationship between Chanler-Berat and Boyer’s characters is entertaining and the actors’ chemistry delightful, Mother Russia isn’t quite the astute farce it yearns to be.

Learn more and get Mother Russia tickets on New York Theatre Guide. Mother Russia is at the Pershing Square Signature Center through March 15.

Photo credit: Mother Russia off Broadway. (Photos by HanJie Chow)