Lee Breuer in Moscow: 'The Gospel,' the Beats and the Blues

Lee Breuer, the brains and brawn behind Mabou Mines, one of the finest and most innovative theater organizations in the United States, has connections to Russia that go way back. His grandmother was from Russia, and she used to tell him stories of traveling interminably over hill and dale to get medical treatment in Moscow.

More recently, in May of 1998, Breuer was in Moscow to participate in the Third Chekhov International Theater Festival with two of his finest productions — “Hajj,” starring the great Ruth Maleczech, and “The Gospel at Colonus,” one of the most exciting works of theater created in America over the last quarter century.  

At present Breuer is in Russia again — this time to conduct master classes and lecture on avant-garde American theater in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov. He just arrived from Seoul, Korea, where he staged a dramatization of Yi Sang’s story “Yi Sang Counts to Thirteen,” and when he departs he will be off to Mongolia. Traveling with Breuer is his partner and muse Maude Mitchell, who will leave him for two days on May 14 to return briefly to New York to attend an awards ceremony — she is nominated for a Drama League best actress award in Breuer’s production of Ibsen’s “Mabou Mines Dollhouse.”

I had the pleasure on the May 9 holiday of spending an afternoon with Lee and Maude at the dacha of Maria Shustina and Pyotr Rofin. Lee regaled us with stories of starting out his career with the Beats in San Francisco in the late 1950s, crossing paths with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsburg and others. In fact, Breuer was enterprising enough to steal a first edition of Ginsburg’s influential “Howl” from Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore. (No, he doesn’t have the copy anymore, but yes, he has actually started piecing together his memoirs.)

Lee talked about his complex relationship with the New York Times (“The first-line critics always pan me. The second-line critics always love me. Frank Rich really hates me”), which had an impact on one of his stranger productions, “Porco Morto.” He talked about his admiration for Yi Sang (“You have got to read his story ‘Wings’”), his fascination with Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (“He does the weirdest stuff. He has characters coming in, speaking one line and leaving! You can’t do that!”), and his thoughts on vanity in the modern world (“Young people today aren’t interested in making love. They’re interested in what they look like as they are making love.”)

Maude left me crestfallen early in the day when she informed me she is utterly sick of photographers, bloggers and makers of YouTube videos. After that, I thought I would never have the nerve to pull out my camera and ask Lee to say a few words for me. However, when Pyotr went to work barbecuing the mackerel and taking photos, and Maude ended up in the house making salads with Maria — I seized my chance. I asked Lee to reminisce about his experience bringing the rocking and rolling “Gospel at Colonus” to Moscow 11 years ago. That is the story you will hear if you click on the video link below.

Maude, forgive me!