Most of us remember all too well the tender, teenage clashes with mom and dad: yes, I'll call you when I get there; no, we won't be drinking; yes, I'll put on a scarf. In her new play, About Face, now playing at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg through December 21st, Essie Martsinkovsky explores the semantics of childhood through the pressure cooker of the immigrant experience. More specifically, About Face recounts the story of one Russian-Jewish family escaping the Soviet Union.

The central relationship explored in the play is that between Lina, a sixteen year old girl, and her grandmother, Zina, about a decade after they have left the USSR.  Lina was young when they moved to America, and she struggles to find her own distinctly American identity: dying her hair, aspiring to make the hockey team, blowing off dance classes she's supposed to take with fellow Russians. She's a product of an American cultural upbringing, and the primary thing mother Russia represents is a convenient way for her peers to bully her. A KGB agent, played by Sergey Nagorny (who, also playing the role of persecuted husband Boris adds an immediacy and ferociousness to the evils lurking in their cultural past), existing somewhere between fantasy and reality in the eyes of Zina, scolds the aging woman that her granddaughter speaks Russian so poorly, "like a child."

On the other end of the relationship we have Zina, struggling to learn English and figure out her place in America at age 75. But whereas young Lina is so eager to eschew her connections to a culture she barely grew up with, Zina finds it impossible to leave the Soviet Union behind and start a new life, as memories from a past life rife with violence, oppression, and fear pull her back across the sea.

As Lina, actress Lilli Stein is relatable and powerful in her teen angst. An angst which, heightened by the factors of her heritage, makes her a little too eager to gain the friendship of gun-toting, church-going teens who would rather make fun of her name than attempt to pronounce it correctly. Charity Schubert is elegant and heartbreaking as haunted Zina (she also didn't speak a word of Russian when she was cast, which is truly unbelievable - but more on that in my interview) who is beside herself trying to keep her granddaughter safe and shield her from the pains she has suffered.

Ultimately, the violence that was an everyday horror and reality for her grandmother, who served as a nurse in WWII and lost her Doctor husband to KGB torture, becomes a roleplay for Lina. When she goes camping with new friends, played unsettlingly by Devin McDuffee and Lila Newman (who also play a host of other roles), they at first consider, as many teens do, how great it would be if they never returned home. But then, as the liquor flows, their teen fun starts to resemble boot camp, and they drill her with questions about guns, communists, and war. Lina plays along unflinchingly, desperate to assert herself as a loyal, patriotic American.

Director Anna Strasser has only a small stage and minimalist accessories to tell this story, yet the tale is harrowing, tragic, and sometimes scary, while still managing to reminding us of the powerful love shared amongst family. Though most of us can't relate to the extreme circumstances of the play, the inter-generational relationship is universal. Essie Martinskovsky reminds us that as we attempt to become individuals, we must look back as well as forward, finding our cultural roots and accepting their beauties and their horrors before we can fully grow.