From the first taste of the preshow environment for “Mother Russia” — a flood of red lights, sparkly tinsel garlands and blasting Russian electropop — it’s clear that Lauren Yee is up to her tricks again. The Chinese American playwright’s previous works, “The Great Leap” and “Cambodian Rock Band,” energetically explore Western influences creeping into communist countries. Her new off-Broadway production, playing at Signature Theatre, turns her darkly comedic observations to St. Petersburg in 1992.
Believe it or not, an actor — not an actress — actually plays the titular role in “Mother Russia.” A representation of Russia herself, performed in drag by David Turner, presides over the night like a pouty, sardonic master of ceremonies. You’d think Mother Russia would be going through a bit of a midlife crisis — what with the fall of the Berlin Wall, failed ousting of President Mikhail Gorbachev, dissolution of the Soviet Union and all that noise — but she seems pretty blasé about the whole situation. She’s already lived through what she calls “one shitty man after another,” and the new President Boris Yeltsin is just more of the same for her.
Yeltsin’s presidency does, however, make a world of difference to Yee’s other characters. There’s Dmitri (Steven Boyer), a former aspiring KGB agent and owner of a compact convenience store where he reunites with his old friend Evgeny (Adam Chanler-Berat), the awkward son of a powerful Russian politician. Evgeny is actually there on his father’s orders to shake down Dmitri, now that his job setting market prices is obsolete thanks to Yeltsin’s introduction of capitalism.
Dmitri soon reveals the store is a front for his real business: surveillance. His sole client wants ears on Katya (Rebecca Naomi Jones), a former pop star and defector who now works as a teacher. As it turns out, Evgeny harbors a longtime crush on Katya — even though his family is part of the political system her protest music targets — and he jumps at the opportunity to keep tabs on her, following her home on the bus. Predictably, his stalking goes terribly, as the guarded Katya easily notices Evgeny’s failure at being conspicuous.
Director Teddy Bergman conveys Katya and Evgeny’s journey toward eventual mutual trust while also keeping “Mother Russia” playful and speedy. As the setting zips from store to bus, characters pull across painted backdrops for scene changes. His cast has great chemistry, especially the bro-ey pair of Boyer and Chanler-Berat. In one scene, they sit down for a taste test of a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, which hooks them from the first bite. Their simple lunch devolves into Evgeny hungrily sucking on Dmitri’s fingers, and the latter’s pronunciation of the sandwich as “fill-a-toe-fish” is the proverbial tartar sauce on top.
Moments like these signify the intrusion of Americana into St. Petersburg, showcasing how capitalism even made it into Russia’s belly. The characters often lament their new burden of choice, with teeth apparently going unbrushed due to the number of toothpaste options. During the play’s climactic heist operation, sound designer Mikhail Fiksel remixes Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” with modern house music, upending tradition with the contemporary.
These moments are sometimes a bit too on-the-nose — it’s a cheap shot to decry the missing 10th dentist in toothpaste commercials, especially amid capitalism’s treasure trove of jokes. “Mother Russia” gets away with it by committing to snappy farce instead of highbrow criticism. And nowhere is that clearer than in Turner’s campy rendition of the mother herself. Dressed in costume designer Sophia Choi’s all-red, shoulder-padded dress, he pops up in unexpected places to encapsulate the country’s vast misfortune into pithy one-liners. He is mother, literally and figuratively.
Mother Russia’s best moment comes in a monologue retelling the entire history of Russia from 7 CE all the way up to the present day. It’s a rapid-fire marathon through the ages, with throwaway gags galore — including a reference to the second part of Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America” — but it also gives the character greater weight. She is a timeless being who will exist past Yeltsin, past Vladimir Putin, past capitalism itself. The spirit of a country remains, even as handshakes change power, economic systems fall and McDonald’s ends up leaving you.
“Mother Russia” is running at the Signature Theatre until March 15. Tickets are available online.
Contact Ethan Li at [email protected].