Stage Review - POTUS (ACT)
Stage Review - POTUS (Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Presented By: ACT Contemporary Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: September 07 - September 29, 2024
Date Reviewed: Thursday, September 12, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
When I met with ACT Contemporary Theatre’s former Artistic Director John Langs last season as part of our Get to Know a Theatre interview series, he wasn’t quite ready to announce, or talk in any great detail, about what he had planned for the 2024-25 season at the theatre. I also didn’t know that within a few days of our interview that he would be making the announcement about his impending departure from ACT. I suppose if nothing else, John is pretty good at keeping a secret. Joking aside, I’ve always been impressed with ACT’s programming with John at the helm. It’s been risky, thought provoking, and, to use a phrase that may be overcooked, important. What he could tell me about the upcoming (now current) season is that it was curated with the current political and social climate in America in mind, and that the first show would be one that would take our minds off of the stress of 2024 Presidential election season, and its craziness. Well, he wasn’t kidding. With POTUS (Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive), he’s more than just fulfilled that promise, he’s assembled a team led by director Jillian Armenante to deliver a show that is an extremely funny and satirical look at what happens behind the scenes to support a President who can’t help but do or say the wrong, or inappropriate, things that seem to come as easy to him as breathing does. Featuring a cast that comically eviscerates the misogynistic power structure that to date has done nothing but put male figureheads in the most powerful position in the world, while proving that it’s the women behind the scenes keep the world from exploding, POTUS will leave you laughing until your sides hurt, and allow you to forget, if just for a few hours, that the hilarity presented on stage really isn’t too much of a departure from reality. POTUS runs through September 29 on the Falls Theatre stage at ACT Contemporary Theatre.
Funny thing about POTUS, as you take it in you might think that you know that one President being lampooned by the play, though if you think about it, most of the Presidents we’ve had over the past, I don’t know, 50 years (and probably before, but Gerald Ford was the first “Bumbler-in-Chief” that I remember), haven’t always made the choices or said the things that presented them in the best light. And in POTUS, that’s exactly what happens, a President who, in a press conference, describes the First Lady’s mood in a most offensive way, immediately sending his staff scrambling and the spin machine in motion. That includes Chief of Staff Harriet (Anne Allgood), Press Secretary Jean (Josephine Keefe), and secretary Stephanie (Annette Toutonghi). And if that situation wasn’t enough to cause complete chaos behind the scenes, enter the First Lady herself, Margaret (Gin Hammond), a recently divorced reporter Chris (Ayo Tushinde), an airy blonde Dusty (Carly Corey), and the President’s little sister Bernadette (Cassi Q. Kohl), who had been awaiting a pardon for her conviction as a drug mule and who mysteriously shows up at the White House unexpectedly. These ladies scramble, they spin, they try deal with the imperfections of their own lives, all the while coming together to try to save the President and his career, not always helping his cause either. It’s a political farce that doesn’t seem so far from reality that will make you question who really is in charge, and honestly who should be in charge.
Anne Allgood’s performance as Chief of Staff Harriet is so good here. Harriet is trying to be the glue that holds everything together. The only one out of the group who seems to be aware of everything the President is up to, she pulls all of the strings behind the scenes and only divulges what others need to know, which is usually only half the story. Anne’s Harriet is strong and loyal, though that loyalty is constantly challenged. If there’s a straight in POTUS, it’s Anne, and she manages that so well. Harriet’s refusal to tell the whole story doesn’t help frazzled Press Secretary Jean, who is charged with relaying what the President is up to and why he says and does what he does but with only the information provided to her by her boss. Josephine Keefe’s Jean is run ragged, and she’s so funny here, especially in her interactions with reporter Chris, who seems to wear down Jean until she provides a sound bite that makes everyone’s lives more complicated. Ayo Tushinde plays the recently divorced mother of twins beautifully. Her Chris is trying to find that one scoop that will ger her back “in the game”, all while making sure her twins’ needs are taken care of. Ayo’s humor is more physical in nature and it’s clear she has a knack for delivering it. And speaking of physical humor, Annette Toutonghi’s secretary Stephanie, diminutive, shy, and quiet, but who has been taking confidence building advice from Anne’s Harriet, doesn’t know what she is in for when she meets Bernadette, the President’s sister fresh from prison. What Stephanie goes through and what Annette presents here is just comedy gold. And Cassi Q. Kohl’s Bernadette is the impetus for a lot of that. This is a different role than I’ve seen lately for Cassi, and she leans into it, delivering her performance with just the right timing and nuance. A little less nuanced, perhaps, is Carly Corey’s Dusty. Only Harriet (and the audience) knows why Dusty has arrived, and while she keeps being pushed off into one office or another to keep her away from the “important” matters at hand, it’s Dusty who becomes an unexpected heroine of POTUS. I love this performance from Carly, there’s a (for lack of a better expression) bimbo-esque quality to her Dusty, but what’s most impressive is the way she shows that there’s a lot more to the character than just what’s on the outside. Rounding out the cast is First Lady Margaret, played just so wonderfully by Gin Hammond. Gin’s Margaret is clearly in a loveless marriage with the President, but she’s been successful professionally on her own and isn’t afraid to tell anyone about it. She’s sarcastic and direct, and Gin is so extremely funny, able to deliver a laugh with a simple expression, gesture, or sound. And as good as these actors are on their own, as an ensemble, they work synergistically, bringing so much of the humor through their expert timing and natural delivery. There’s not a single miss within this cast.
Execution wise, at least on the design side, there was a bit of a miss, though, on opening night. A lift, imperative for the story, malfunctioned at a critical point. For the sake of the cast’s safety, there was a bit of a delay while the problem was diagnosed and fixed. That did break up a bit of the momentum that the show had built to that point, as Jillian has produced a show with wonderful pace, but at the end of the day, it’s live theatre. And kudos to Jillian for coming out, interacting with the audience and making everyone feel at ease with the situation. Once the show did pick back up, it built its momentum back pretty quickly and stuck the landing. It’s a wonderful show all around, and the creative team that Jillian has put together deserves full marks as well, despite the foible on opening night with that life.
Immediately the audience is drawn in by Julia Hayes Welch’s set, designed and constructed in a neoclassical-influenced style that makes them feel like they’re sitting in the White House, portraits of former Presidents hung on the wall. The part of the White House the women are in changes, though, location expressed not just by furniture rising up through the floor, but even more creatively by the portraits rotating on the wall to display more location-related decorations. Equally impressive, and adding to the overall mood of the show, is Connie Yun’s lighting. Connie’s work is extremely creative, especially in the way that she uses the portrait lighting during scene changes as an accompaniment to the interval music. Another creative highlight in POTUS is Melanie Burgess’ costumes. From Harriet’s business suit, to Margaret’s pinstripes or the dress that she wears to the FML gala, Dusty’s dress, and even Bernadette’s pseudo-paramilitary olive/camo combination, the costuming is varied and relevant, and what she does with an American flag with Stephanie is so good.
There’s so much to enjoy about POTUS. It’s a winner from top to bottom, with so much humor delivered by a cast of actors who understand satire and how to deliver a political farce in a way that drives home its points while invigorating the audience through laughter. Our social and political climate is rife with stress, and what a joy it is to have the ability to escape that if only for a few hours, and that’s the true beauty of POTUS, and it’s just one more chapter in the increasing legacy of former Artistic Director John Langs’ tenure at ACT Contemporary Theatre.
POTUS runs onstage at ACT’s Falls Theatre through September 29. For more information, including tickets, visit https://acttheatre.org/.
Photo credit: Rosemary Dai Ross
