Her Post-Soviet Buddy Comedy Was Decades in the Making

Lauren Yee’s boisterous play “Mother Russia,” about the origins of the contemporary oligarchy, has its roots in her San Francisco childhood.

by Daniella Ignacio

The first play that Lauren Yee ever wrote took no more than a day to finish. She was only a teenager and it was only a 10-minute play, but still: Her habits as an artist have evolved considerably since.

Her latest work, “Mother Russia,” a raucous comedy with a dark political center, gestated fitfully for nine long years from its festival beginnings in 2017 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., to its current, lauded Off Broadway form. In between came the industry shutdown of 2020-21 and — during a workshop of the play shortly before its premiere last March in Seattle — a crisis of confidence in which she mercilessly cut the title character from the script, because she thought it might help. It did the opposite, and she swiftly reinstated the role.

“I’m a very iterative writer,” Yee said the other afternoon at Signature Theater in Manhattan, where “Mother Russia” opened on Monday. “I go through lots and lots of drafts.” Also, she added: “I’m not a precious person.” She just wants whatever is best for the play.

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