Lauren Yee’s comedy of spies and racketeers in 1992 St Petersburg receives its UK premiere in Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs studio, directed by Oscar Toeman.
Mother Russia, a comedy by Cambodian Rock Band playwright Lauren Yee, receives its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre in Swiss Cottage on Friday 11 December 2026. Oscar Toeman directs, in his Hampstead debut.
The play is set in St Petersburg in 1992, as the new market arrives with Filet-o-Fish and a choice of toothpastes. Two old friends, Evgeny and Dimitri, take work in espionage and racketeering because it pays best.
Their first surveillance target is Katya, a young woman who has lived in the West. Evgeny falls for her at once, and has to work out how to confess to someone whose every word he is listening to.
Yee’s earlier plays include Cambodian Rock Band and The Great Leap, both first staged in New York. Mother Russia opened at Signature Theater there earlier in 2026.
Hampstead produces it with Celia Atkin in its Downstairs studio, the smaller of its two stages. It plays to Saturday 30 January 2027.
Lucy McCormick plays Mother Russia, with Matthew Tennyson as Evgeny, Samuel Creasey as Dimitri and Kirsty Rider as Katya.