What does "Mother Russia" tell us about ourselves?: An interview with Lauren Yee

(photo Beowulf Sheehan)

Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse)

By Lauren Yee

Seattle Rep

March 6 to April 6, 2025

World Premiere

Nationally known playwright Lauren Yee has a tight connection with Seattle, as she and the Seattle Rep get ready for the March world premiere of her latest play, Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse). Not only have two of her  works premiered here first, but also years back, she would periodically visit Seattle to hang out with acclaimed director Desdemona Chiang, using her house as a kind of developmental Hedgebrook.

Prior to Mother Russia, our city has been privileged to have major productions of Yee's Cambodian Rock Band, The Great Leap, King of the Yees, and Ching Chong Chinaman. She has won some amazing playwrighting awards and now also contributes writing for shows on Apple+ and Netflix.

Before her burgeoning success, a 22-year-old Yee mused about what her future looked like. "[I imagined that] by day I'd work at an arts nonprofit, probably a theater, in development or marketing," she said. "In the evenings, I'd write and maybe I'd have a show at a small theater... I think about what I have achieved, and what I've been lucky enough to enjoy has far outpaced what I imagined when I was coming into this world professionally."

As for Mother Russia's plot: Two men find jobs surveilling a former pop star in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union. As they bumble their way through the assignment, spy work and life under capitalism prove harder than they thought. It sounds like it will have a great deal of humor in it.

"At a time when Russia was in this great moment of change [toward] capitalism and democracy, this whole new system was being thrust upon them, and people were saying, 'You're free. Now you're free to buy a cheeseburger from McDonald's,'" Yee said. "I think the play interrogates these periods of great change. Many Western people would be saying, 'How, how did this not work out for you? How did Russia kind of fall back into [communism/dictatorship]?'"

Yee said people saw this change as the next evolution forward, and that many thought Russia would be enlightened due to capitalism and democracy. Never to return.

"I have over the years been subconsciously writing a cycle of plays about communism in Asia in the 20th century," Yee added. "You have Cambodia in the '70s, China in the '80s, Russia in the '90s. I'm always interested in communism and the collision with Western culture, because I think it's a way of understanding American identity through a different lens."

Yee is a writer who excels in inserting humor even into the darkest stories. Cambodian Rock Band details the history of one of the darkest times in our world's history, yet even there, Yee sparks laughter.

I consider humorous writing some of the toughest to do. Humor is so subjective... So how does she write humor so successfully?

"I just use humor in life," she said. "That is part of my DNA. In dark, bleak, difficult, challenging circumstances, my brain tends to go to what is absurd or funny or strange to find a way to make sense of it. I love making people laugh. I think it's just a gift. And also, a way to get people off guard, or get them on board with something that they may feel anxious about.

"I think it just feels very human, right? For us to try to make sense of it. To try to find some way. to fight, to find the thing that still feels like alive. And to make sense of it all."

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First Printed at: https://www.sgn.org/story.php?ch=arts__entertainment&sc=theater___stage&id=337651