There are a handful of Sacramento theater companies that program work you won’t find anywhere else on the local calendar, and Capital Stage on J Street is one of them. Starting November 18, the company runs My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion through December 20—a play about a Ukrainian grandmother who refuses to be diminished by war, written by Kyiv playwright Sasha Denisova and directed here by Michael Stevenson.
The premise sounds bleak. The tone is not. The Washington Post called it “a study in the wonderful absurdity of a stubbornly resistant woman under fire,” and the play’s comic engine runs on exactly that: an 82-year-old woman’s absolute refusal to let a Russian invasion interrupt her sense of self.
What the Play Is About
Sasha Denisova wrote My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, drawing directly on phone calls with her own mother in Kyiv. The play follows an elderly woman—82 years old, living in the city under fire—while her daughter, safe abroad, tries to process what’s happening by imagining her mother in increasingly surreal situations: advising President Zelenskyy, fending off drones with pickle jars, holding her ground in a city that the world half-expected to fall within days.
The adaptation is by Kellie Mecleary, translated from Ukrainian and Russian by Misha Kachman. The subject is the war, but the play’s subject is really the woman—stubborn, specific, impossible to categorize, and very much alive.
Capital Stage has a track record of bringing this kind of production to Sacramento: work that takes seriously the idea that theater should do something other regional entertainment venues can’t. If you want a show that runs about two hours, sits with something real, and gives you something to talk about at dinner afterward, this is the one on Sacramento’s calendar right now.
Dates, Times, and Tickets
The run is November 18 – December 20, 2026 at Capital Stage, located at 2215 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816. The theater is in Midtown Sacramento’s J Street corridor.
Capital Stage’s standard performance schedule runs Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings at 7:00 PM, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM. Check the box office or the Capital Stage website to confirm times for specific dates, including any preview performances, opening night, or holiday-week scheduling around Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Ticket prices by seat section:
- Preview performances: $35, all seats
- Opening Night: $77 Center / $73 Wedge / $60 Side
- Wednesday–Friday and Saturday extension shows: $67 Center / $63 Wedge / $50 Side
- Saturday and Sunday matinees: $69 Center / $65 Wedge / $55 Side
Credit card orders include a $6.00 per-ticket processing fee.
Tickets are available on the Capital Stage website. The box office at 916-995-5464 or boxoffice@capstage.org is staffed Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6:00 PM.
Practical Notes
Capital Stage is a small black-box theater, which means the space is intimate and every seat is genuinely close to the stage. The Wedge and Side sections are angled seating areas that flank the Center section. For first-time visitors, the Center section puts you directly facing the stage; the Wedge and Side seats are slightly offset but remain well within the sight lines for most productions.
Parking in Midtown is street parking or the surface lots on J and K Streets. The venue is also accessible from the Sacramento RT light rail 29th Street Station, about a five-minute walk.
Given the subject matter—a play about a real, ongoing war—this is an adults-first experience, though older teenagers with an interest in current events would likely find it compelling rather than difficult. There’s no listed content advisory on the Capital Stage website; call the box office if you want specifics before booking for younger audiences.
The Details
- Show: My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion
- Playwright: Sasha Denisova (translated by Misha Kachman, adapted by Kellie Mecleary)
- Director: Michael Stevenson
- Dates: November 18 – December 20, 2026
- Venue: Capital Stage, 2215 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
- Showtimes: Wed/Thu/Fri 7:00 PM; Sat/Sun 2:00 PM (confirm with box office)
- Tickets: $35 previews; $50–$77 regular performances (plus $6 credit card fee)
- Box Office: 916-995-5464 | boxoffice@capstage.org | Tue–Sat 12:00–6:00 PM
Bottom Line
Capital Stage schedules maybe five or six productions a year, and this one has already earned serious critical attention in other markets. For Sacramento theater-goers looking for something substantive in the November–December window—something that isn’t a holiday musical—My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion is worth a night. Preview tickets at $35 make it one of the more accessible options in Midtown this fall.
If you’re building out a December calendar, see our roundup of The Best Sacramento Christmas Events In 2026. For Broadway-scale productions, A Christmas Carol opens at UC Davis Health Pavilion on December 11. And if you’re looking for a smaller-venue date night at B Street, Primary Trust runs through late October.
