Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater (265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) is excited to partner with The League of Live Stream Theater (LOLST) to present four worldwide live-stream performances of My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion by Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova. The global live stream of the world premiere co-production is available for $49 (including a $9 service fee) on February 9 at 7 p.m., February 10 at 2 and 8 p.m., and February 11 at 2 p.m. EST. Partnering with LOLST fulfills The Wilma’s ongoing efforts to extend the life and reach of its productions through digital content.

The League of Live Stream Theater is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing live performances to audiences around the world via livestream. Launched just this past year, LOLST has streamed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play Between Riverside and Crazy, the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, and most recently the world premiere off-Broadway play Scene Partners, as well as several regional productions.

Presented as a world premiere co-production between The Wilma and Washington, DC-based Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the play is an irreverently funny and heartfelt look at the current war in Ukraine told through Denisova’s family story. My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion is directed by The Wilma’s Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov and features a cast of award-winning actors Holly Twyford, Wilma HotHouse Company member Suli Holum, and fellow Wilma Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling. The in-person presentation of the play runs from January 30 to February 18, with 20 performances presented in The Wilma’s 300-seat theater. 

The Wilma and Woolly Mammoth collaborated on My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion’s world premiere, presenting the production with the same cast and crew on their respective stages for the 2023-24 season. My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion kicked off Woolly Mammoth’s 2023-24 season and ran from September 11 to October 8. The play was met with rave reviews, hailed by The Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks as “ingenious” and “a stunning tale of love, loyalty, and resilience” by Broadway World. After a successful run in D.C., the production’s cast and creative team prepare to continue telling the inspiring story about the resistance of one octogenarian for The Wilma’s audiences.  

My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion centers on Denisova’s 82-year-old mama, Olga (Twyford), who has lived in Kyiv her whole life. When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, Sasha (Holum) copes with her fears by imagining her mother in increasingly fantastical situations: strategizing with President Zelenskyy, meeting with world leaders, taking out Russian drones with jars of pickles, and even debating with God. Throughout the play, Sasha reveals layers of her and her mother’s relationship, offering a window into their lives that is simultaneously revealing and endearing. Denisova was inspired by her online chats with her mother to write this defiantly funny and deeply heartfelt play about her family’s connection and legacy amidst the present-day war and global crisis. In centering herself and her mother in the play, Denisova provides an emotionally resonant heartbeat to humanize the Ukrainian resistance for audiences separated from the war by an entire hemisphere.

“Every day of this criminal and cruel invasion of Ukraine, I feel a desperate need to respond to it,” said Urnov. “Now, when the focus is shifting away from the region, the need feels even more urgent. The Washington Post named Denisova as a leading dramatic voice on Putin’s tragic war’ for a reason - her play is a treasure both politically and artistically, despite those two rarely walking hand in hand. Through telling an extremely personal, emotional, and often funny story about her own mom, Denisova grasps the very nature of Ukrainian resistance. My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion tells facts and gives hope.” 

For more information check out lolst.org or reach out to katie@lolst.org

Use code EARLYMAMA before 1/22, for $10 off.

Purchase Live Stream Ticket Here:

https://www.lolst.org/my-mama?via=library