You will have a chance to answer all those questions and more in the excellent Dobama Theatre production of Selina Fillinger’s POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. This all-female creation (playwright, director, and entire cast) goes over the top in so many ways you may develop acrophobia by the final curtain.
Until then, you will be immersed in creative vulgarity and dagger-like wit wielded by the entire 7-person cast. As for the script, it includes massive doses of the f-word, the b-word, the c-word and any other nasty word with an alphabet letter in front of it.
In this raucous yarn, an anal abscess is the reason the President of the U.S. is unable to function normally, but his unseen and incompetent presence is felt throughout as the seven women, all connected to the President in some way, collide into each other and themselves throughout the White House.
Of course, confronting a doofus POTUS is no shocking situation in a play or anywhere else. But what sets this particular POTUS apart is the sheer joy and coloring-outside-lines energy of the production. The first sentence slaps you with “cunty” and then barrels ahead, no holds or f-bombs barred.
The literal activity involves the Chief of Staff named Harriet (a mostly indomitable Kristy Cruz) and Press Secretary Jean (Nina Domingue, whose deadpan delivery of her lines is dead-solid hilarious). They are trying to navigate a busy governing day involving a meeting about nuclear weapons, a gathering of feminist leaders called Female Models of Leadership—bearing the unfortunate acronym of FML— and problems with the country of Bahrain which is feeling pissy.
They are attended to by a lowly secretary Stephanie (Natalie Green), who is either trembling in the shadow of the other women or trying to pump up her stature by doing self-esteem exercises. Then FLOTUS appears in the person of uber-competent Margaret (Nicole Sumlin), who does not suffer fools gladly and explains her passion for wild game hunting in a meditation so full of blood lust people in the first row may get some on their shoes.
There are also three visitors on hand including Dusty (Katherine Nash) who is POTUS’s pregnant mistress and is always game for a fast round of slurping the turtle; Bernadette (Amiee Collier), the President’s lesbian sister and convicted drug mule; and Chris (Chennelle Bryant-Harris), White House reporter and new mom who can often be found pumping her breast milk.
Once all the characters have been introduced and well-massaged, attended by volleys of laughter, Act Two shows how it all falls apart in a denouement that often sacrifices wit for wacky.
The latter part of the play is saved by Green’s Stephanie, who winds up swallowing indeterminate drugs and proceeds to wander through and around the others. She turns in a fabulous turn of silent, physical humor as she reacts to the hallucinogens, contorting herself in slow motion as she tries to relocate where the ground (and she herself) might be.
Director Carrie Williams nails all the laughs and drives this farcical bus off the road as intended by the playwright, but she still manages to hold onto the fast-disappearing storyline. As for the language, the words “cunt,” “fuck,” and all the others are used in such marvelously inventive ways they tend to feel as normal as a David Mamet play.
And for those who think this is all too ridiculous, think about who might reside in the White House for real come this January. That’ll sober you up in a hurry.
POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Through November 3 at Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-932-3396, dobama.org.
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This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 8, 2024.
